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Battle for self governance

By Messenger Staff
Thursday, November 22
After the October 1 parliamentary election, the balance of parties took on the following configuration. The Georgian Dream coalition exercised the majority in the parliament. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the head of Georgian Dream coalition, became Georgia's new Prime Minister. On the other hand, the UNM retained its control over the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and almost all self-governing systems throughout the country. Before the elections, 100% of the self- government system bosses were from the UNM. Possession of the self-government bodies provides a big advantage to parties. UNM enjoyed this advantage for various manipulations before and during the elections. The GD claims that it will not use a majority in the self governing system for illegal actions.

The Georgian Dream is attempting to carry out changes in a more democratic way. However, the UNM detects some pressure and has complained. However the process has started and many supporters of the UNM have begun to move into the new party. However, the UNM still thinks of taking revenge and as they say– "returning to power." Their supporters in the self-governing systems are doing their best to preserve their positions. Officially, the term self-governance bodies expire in 2014, because they were elected in 2010 for four years.

However there is one more very strong argument. The Saakashvili administration created the system when all administrative, financial or other resources of self governing bodies depended completely on a central power. For instance, if the central government does not allot an appropriate amount of money for the various projects, the project will fail and therefore local self-governance needs this support. This of course gives preference to the Georgian Dream. So once again Georgia is stuck in a complicated situation.