Ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili said that he does not think the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party will need to enter into coalition with other parties to form the government after the October 8 parliamentary elections.
He said in an interview with the Georgian television channels on June 7 that he expects that GDDG will win around 95 seats in the 150-member Parliament in the upcoming elections.
Georgia currently has a mixed system in which 73 lawmakers are elected in 73 single-member constituencies, known in Georgia as “majoritarian” mandates (a candidate has to win over 50% of votes in order to be an outright winner otherwise a second round should be held), and rest 77 seats are allocated proportionally under the party-list contest among political parties, which clear 5% threshold. The system implies that voters can cast two ballots – one for a party in a nationwide vote and another for a specific candidate in a respective single-member constituency.
Ivanishvili reiterated that he plans to actively campaign to convince the electorate to vote in the elections for GDDG, the party he founded four years ago.
Ivanishvili, who was the PM for a year till November 2013, and who is widely considered to be still wielding much influence on government, said that the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party will “have a problem of clearing electoral threshold” of 5% in the party-list contest.
“There is a high probability that the UNM will fail to be the major opposition force – some other parties will be; it has to be decided by ballot box,” Ivanishvili said.
In the 2012 parliamentary elections six-party Georgian Dream coalition, led by Ivanishvili won total of 85 seats – 44 seats through party-list, proportional contest and 41 majoritarian seats. In 2014 the Free Democrats party quit the coalition and in spring 2016 remaining five parties (GDDG; Republican Party; Conservative Party; National Forum, and Industrialists) announced about intention to run separately in this year’s parliamentary elections. GDDG parliamentary faction unites 47 lawmakers in the outgoing Parliament.
In the interview with the Georgian television stations on June 7, Ivanishvili condemned violent incident in the village of Kortskheli in which UNM leaders were beaten up by GDDG members and supporters, who arrived in the village during municipal by-election on May 22.
“The Kortskheli incident was very shameful… and we should do everything in order not to let [such incidents] reoccur,” he said. “In overall it has damaged very much our state.”
“I have no doubt that this provocation was well-planned by the United National Movement… But it does not justify in any way what has happened… and it does not justify the actions from the ruling [party],” he added.
Six men have been charged, without being arrested, in connection to the Kortskheli violence.
Lawmakers from UNM party are currently boycotting the Parliament over the Kortskheli incident. UNM MPs walked out of the Parliament chamber on May 25, saying they will not be attending sessions unless all the perpetrators and masterminds of the violence in Kortskheli are held accountable. UNM specifically accuses energy minister and general secretary of the ruling GDDG party, Kakha Kaladze, of being behind the group, which attacked opposition party members in Kortskheli.
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