Will there be a multi-party parliament?

There is broad speculation that the future parliament will be represented by several different parties. The term of registration for political parties participating in the elections expired in the evening on August 5. 19 parties have already qualified and the rest will be decided shortly. Polling conducted by various organizations just before the election date was announced showed that so far, only three parties will be qualified in the parliament. These include the National Movement, the Georgian Dream coalition and the Christian Democrats. Some opposition entities do not trust these results and suggest that on Election Day, the real configuration of the forces in the future parliament will be revealed. In the latest polling, the results of the performance by the National Movement and the Georgian Dream are different– though nobody doubts that both these entities will qualify for the elections.

No time has come where there is the possibility that qualified parties will unite into blocks. For example, there is speculation that such a block will be formed by the Christian Democrats, the National Democrats and the New Rights parties. There is also the possibility to create a block consisting of parties with so-called ‘Russian leanings.’

Another distinct scenario is the possibly that when the Georgian Dream coalition enters the parliament, it could be divided into smaller factions, though this opinion is not shared by most analysts. While these are only suppositions, the general mood of the voters it is very simple: they see that the major rivals in the battle for the parliament are the current administration’s party and the Ivanishvili-led coalition. Unfortunately, there is a tendency that was noticed by representatives of the diplomatic corps in Georgia that has political rivals in the elections becoming political enemies–and this is wrong. All the participants should realize and make it clear to the public that all forces attempting to enter parliament care for their country and therefore neither of them should promote hatred, intolerance and confrontation.