GDDG Names Majoritarian MP Candidates in Samtskhe-Javakheti Region
Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) ruling party nominated its majoritarian MP candidates for Samtskhe-Javakheti region’s three single-mandate constituencies on August 7.
GDDG’s majoritarian MP from Borjomi, Gedevan Popkhadze, will run for re-election in the same constituency, which after the recent redistricting also unites Aspindza municipality.
United National Movement (UNM) opposition party’s majoritarian MP in the outgoing Parliament from Aspindza, Tariel Londaridze, is also running in the same constituency uniting Borjomi and Aspindza municipalities.
An election bloc led by Alliance of Patriots of Georgia named a singer Zura Khachidze as its majoritarian MP candidate in Borjomi and Aspindza.
Mayor of Akhaltsikhe, Giorgi Kopadze, will run as GDDG’s majoritarian MP candidate in a single-mandate constituency covering Akhaltsikhe and Adigeni municipalities.
UNM MP Vazha Chitashvili is running in the same constituency and an election bloc led by Alliance of Patriots named Goderdzi Kublashvili as its candidate there. Kublashvili and GDDG’s candidate Kopadze were behind an anti-minaret protest in Akhaltsikhe in 2013; a year later Kopadze was elected as Akhaltsikhe mayor.
A long-time lawmaker Enzel Mkoian was nominated by GDDG as its majoritarian MP candidate in a constituency uniting Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda municipalities. Mkoian, who is an MP since 1999, was re-elected in Ninotsminda district as a majoritarian MP in 2012 elections as UNM member, but he quit the party shortly after the elections in which UNM was defeated by GD coalition.
His competitor from the UNM opposition party will be Arsen Karapetian, former chief of police in Ninotsminda municipality.
Apart of Samtskhe-Javakheti region, the ruling party has so far nominated its majoritarian MP candidates in Imereti, Samegrelo, Guria, Shida Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Kvemo Kartli, and Kakheti regions.
It has yet to name the candidates in the capital city Tbilisi’s 22 single-mandate constituencies, as well as in Adjara region and in a constituency uniting Mestia in the Svaneti region and Ambrolauri, Oni, Tsageri and Lentekhi in the Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region.
Deadline for submitting to the election commission majoritarian MP candidates for registration expires on September 8, one month before the elections.
Georgia has a mixed electoral 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 in nationwide popular vote.
