40 days until Parliamentary Elections in Georgia

There are 40 days left before Georgian citizens can vote for who they want to run the country.

On October 8, 2016 the Parliamentary Elections will be held in Georgia.

The country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) upgraded its lists of election subjects who have addressed the Commission with the request to be allowed to participate in the elections.

There will be 45 parties competing in the elections. This number will not change as the deadline of party registration has expired.

Among the 45 registered parties is the current ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party, as well as the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party, which now is considered as one of the main opposition parties.

Alongside political parties, election blocs also filed request with the CEC to participate in the upcoming election. As of today seven election alliances have applied to the CEC for the Parliamentary Elections.

These blocs were:

1. Nino Burjanadze - Democratic Movement, which united two parties: "Democratic Movement - United Georgia" and "United Democratic Movement".
2. Davit Tarkhan-Mouravi, Irma Inashvili - Alliance of Patriots of Georgia, United Opposition, which united six parties: "Alliance of Patriots of Georgia", "Traditionalists", "Kakha Kukava - Free Georgia, Liberty – Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s Road", "Political Movement of Armed Veterans and Patriots of Georgia", and "New Christian - Democrats".
3. United National Movement, which united two parties: "United National Movement" and "European Georgia".
4. Paata Burchuladze - State for People, which united two political groups "Civil Platform – New Georgia” and "New Rights”.
5. Topadze - Industrials, Our Motherland, which united two parties "Topadze – Industrials” and "Our Motherland”.
6. Our People, Peoples Party, which united two political groups "Our People" and "Peoples Party"; and
7. Kvaratskhelia – Socialists Georgia, which united two political groups "Neutral Georgia" and "Unified Communist Party”.

Today Georgian media’s attention was drawn to the fact the election bloc "Paata Burchuladze - State for People” was represented by only three parties, as earlier the bloc announced it would unite four political groups.

On August 18 four political groups announced they would unite to create a coalition for the upcoming elections under the name of Georgia’s famous opera singer Paata Burchuladze.

The four uniting parties were:

1. Movement State for People - chaired by Paata Burchuladze;
2. Girchi - a political unity composed of former members of the previous ruling United National Movement (UNM);
3. New Rights - a non-parliamentary opposition party; and
4. New Georgia - a political party chaired by former UNM member Giorgi Vashadze.

The CEC’s publication of election blocs who applied to register for the elections showed Girchi was missing from the coalition.

Despite this Girchi’s leader Zurab Japaridze said this was "only a technical detail”.

He added Girchi had not been registered as a subject so it could not apply to the CEC, but it remained an "equal member” of the new bloc and Girchi’s representatives would be involved in the "Paata Burchuladze - State for People’s” election list.