Republicans and Free Democrats plan to participate in municipal elections as bloc
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Two non-parliamentary opposition parties, the Republicans and the Free Democrats, may unite under one election bloc for the 2017 municipal elections.
One of the leaders of the Republican Party Khatuna Samnidze told local media that currently consultations are underway and the two parties are likely to create an election bloc.
"Of course, all parties should be preparing for the municipal elections and we are preparing too – we are strengthening our local organisations and thinking about our election strategy”, Samnidze said.
"We are having talks with the Free Democrats who are part of the liberal family. We have a mutual vision and we believe that it is important for parties with shared values and similar ideology to unite and encourage voters to be more active”.
The Free Democrats also confirmed that negotiations are underway.
"We said a long time ago that we are going to cooperate with parties with the same values”, said Nino Goguadze, a representative of the Free Democrats.
"We have a long history of cooperation [with the Republican Party] and we have started consultations. We hope that this process will be successful and we will participate in the Municipal Elections as a bloc”.
The Republicans and the Free Democrats both participated in the 2016 Parliamentary Elections individually but none of them could overcome the five percent threshold to enter the Parliament.
The Municipal Elections in Georgia are scheduled to be held in autumn 2017.
Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) will be given almost 40 million GEL to organise and hold the Municipal Elections 2017.
The number of political parties to receive state funding after last month’s Parliamentary Elections will increase from 11 to 20, which will cost about $4 million (9.8 million GEL) from the state budget annually.
At today's special gathering at the Parliament Building in Kutaisi, central Georgia, head of Georgia's Central Election Commission (CEC) addressed the country's new lawmakers and spoke of the final outcomes of last month's Parliamentary Elections.
Today Georgia’s Central Election Commission released its final protocol summarising the outcomes of last month's Parliamentary Elections in Georgia.
The Municipal Elections 2017 will take place in Georgia in about four months by the end of the third week of October.
The former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party has united into an election bloc with two other opposition parties for the Municipal Elections, which will take place on October 21.