Non-parliamentary opposition becomes active

Certain non-parliamentary parties have currently become active. Their activities are mainly targeted against the Georgian Dream coalition. Non-Parliamentary parties claim that the ruling party does not pay enough attention to the demands, needs and requirements of the non-parliamentary political organizations and thus violate democratic principles.

The current activities of these political entities are based on their demand to receive state financing for participation in the presidential elections. A special inter-faction group was created in the parliament where this issue has been discussed. However, no consensus has been reached and eventually, some days ago the negotiations were postponed.

After the shocking victory of the Georgian Dream in the Parliamentary Elections in October, all the parties who were not the members of the coalition appeared out of the game. Now they are recovering to return as players on Georgia’s political scene where only the two forces – the Georgian Dream and the United National Movement (UNM) remain.

Neither of the active parliamentary groups is interested in a change of the balance of forces nowadays. Only this balance of equilibrium, which is needed by the Georgian Dream, is possible to be achieved in terms of the constitutional majority; otherwise it is quite comfortable in the parliament.

The UNM is against having snap parliamentary elections because it knows well that it will not manage to gain as many seats as it has now. The coalition also avoids certain acute moves not to create a political crisis to undermine its presidential candidate for the elections. So, at present they do not need any extra adventures.

Common practice shows that the parties actively participating in political life generally receive certain budgetary subsidies so now Georgian non-parliamentary entities are demanding these finances.

Eventually, the Georgian Dream suggested that any party whose presidential candidate will collect at least 10% of the votes will receive 1 million GEL to cover its expenses. However, non-parliamentary parties say they are short of money now and thus need this money for carrying out their election campaigns.

The state will have many problems if it tries to pay all the candidates who are running for the presidency. At the moment there are more than 20 such candidates. As some say mockingly Georgians want to make money on presidential elections. However, the situation is becoming tenser. Non-parliamentary political entities promise they will not stop protesting and creating problems for the state.

There are certain rational moves form them as well. For instance, some forces suggest supporting one united candidate from all the non-parliamentary opposition parties. However, this can be hard to achieve as the non-parliamentary political leaders like Nino Burjanadze leading Democratic Movement-United Georgia, Shalva Natelashvili, leading the Labor Party and Giorgi Targamadze, leading of the Christian-Democratic Movement claim to separately participate and achieve success. Burjanadze is particularly active claiming she can defeat the candidate of the ruling party, Giorgi Margvelashvili, in the second round of the elections.

Currently, the leaders of non-parliamentary political entities demand an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. There is the possibility that if Ivanishvili does not manage to calm the situation, the elections could be undermined through waves of protest rallies.