Second round: will the opposition manage to organize a Maidan in Tbilisi?
Georgia is preparing for the second round of local government elections, which are scheduled for October 30. Citizens of the republic will have to elect candidates for mayors of 5 major cities in the country.
Political expert, professor Black Sea University Niki Chitadze.
Which political party will win the second round of municipal elections in Georgia?
– The ruling party has an administrative resource, with which it will easily gain the votes it needs. It will, of course, be much more difficult for the opposition - it will have to resort to some kind of action in order to thoroughly mobilize its supporters. In my opinion, the opposition will still be able to win in several large cities of the country. For example, the opposition will win in Zugdidi and Senaki.
Will UNM be able to secure the support of votes from other opposition parties that dropped out of the election race?
– As for the party of the former Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia, I doubt that his supporters would vote for the United National Movement. Regarding other political parties - “Lelo”, “Girchi”, “Agmashenebeli Strategy” and “European Georgia” - this part of the opposition will vote for “UNM”. This indicates that the opposition is actively cooperating and reaching agreement with each other.
How will votes be distributed in the regions of Georgia where representatives of national minorities live? According to the latest data, in all regions there are representatives from the ruling government and the opposition side by side.
– I think that all this is due to the fact that during the reign of the United National Movement under the leadership of Mikheil Saakashvili, many infrastructure projects were implemented in regions where national minorities live. People remember how actively the previous authorities carried out the work and see how sluggishly the current authorities are working. They understand that during the reign of the Georgian Dream, their socio-economic situation did not improve in any way, but on the contrary, it worsened significantly. The mistakes of Georgian Dream contribute to the fact that its electorate is turning away from the opposition.
If the opposition loses, will it try to mobilize its supporters to organize a Georgian Euromaidan?
– Yes, of course, there will be a wave of protests. If it is proven that the ruling authorities rigged the elections and resorted to holding so-called “carousels,” then a wave of protests will accordingly cover Georgia. You remember that quite recently, on October 14, more than 60 thousand opposition supporters attended a large-scale rally in the center of Tbilisi. This suggests that all of them, in case of falsification, are ready to go to Rustaveli Avenue. People were not only from Tbilisi, but also from other regions of the country. We must not forget that the opposition regularly has half a million voters.
What will be the West's reaction? Which political party will Brussels lobby this time?
– Negative, of course. We know that the West is already taking various radical steps in this direction. For example, just recently the ruling Georgian Dream was denied the next financial tranche from the European Union. All this only speaks of the negative attitude of the West towards the ruling political party in our country.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.