Free Democrats remove four majoritarian candidates due to ‘zero chance of winning’

The Free Democrats opposition party has removed four of five majoritarian candidates ahead of the October 31 parliamentary elections as ‘they have zero chance of winning’ the race according to the polls conducted by the party. 

Only one majoritarian candidate of the party, Vitali Daraselia, will run for Saburtalo constituency in the capital Tbilisi, said the party.

The party says that now they will direct their resources to the proportional elections ‘where we have a high chance of winning.’

The party was founded back in 2009 by former Defence Minister Irakli Alasania. 

The Free Democrats entered parliament in 2012 as one of the member parties of the Georgian Dream coalition. However, in 2014, following controversies between Alasania and the founder of the coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili, Free Democrats left the Georgian Dream coalition.

After the 2016 parliamentary elections many top faces of the party left the Free Democrats. The same year Alasania announced that he was leaving Georgian politics and moved abroad.

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The upcoming elections will be held in a different manner – 120 seats in parliament will be distributed based on the votes received in proportional elections, while remaining 30 per the votes received in majoritarian elections.

Previously 77 seats in its 150-member parliament were allocated proportionally, under the party-list system, while the remaining 73 MPs were  elected in 73 single-mandate constituencies.