Georgian Dream retains majority in parliament

Since former Defence Minister Irakli Alasania made an announcement that he is moving to the opposition, the Georgian Dream coalition faced the risk of losing their majority in parliament. There are 150 MPs in the parliament and the Georgian Dream coalition created majority with ten MPs of the Free Democrats party chaired by Alasania. However, the coalition has managed to keep its leading position through the support of MPs who quit the United National Movement and will be represented in parliament with 87 MPs.

On November 5, Irakli Alasania openly stated his oppositional intentions. Despite this fact, 3 MPs from the Free Democrats – Gedevan Popkhadze, Tamaz Japaridze and Gela Samkharauli, did not leave the coalition, the number was not enough for the Georgian Dream to create the majority. At least 76 MPs were needed for keeping the majority, while the coalition had only 75 MPs after the Free Democrats separation.

Members of the Georgian Dream stated that they would remain in majority and fill the vacant seats with 12 MPs. Apart from the UNM MPs in parliament, there were several who left the UNM and enjoyed the status of independent. As it appears, there were reserves for the Georgian Dream coalition.

Currently the Georgian Dream coalition has 87 MPs and there are 7 factions united in it. The factions include the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia, which was established by the founder of the coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili - 45 MPs; Georgian Dream-Republicans-9MPs; Georgian Dream-Conservatives; Georgian Dream-Forum; Georgian Dream-the Industrials; Independent-non partial MPs and Independent MPs.

The UNM is in the minority with 51 MPs. They are distributed in three factions: The United National Movement, The National Movement-Majoritarians and the UNM-Regions. The second opposition group will be Free Democrats with 8 MPs. There are four independent MPs in parliament; three of them left the Georgian Dream coalition: Koba Davitashvili, Gia Gachechiladze and Murman Dumbadze. The fourth is Davit Bezhuashvili, who quit the UNM.

The Georgian Dream majority will be at risk again if two parties leave the coalition together.