Fight for Votes of Neutral Electorate

On October 19, Central Election Commission of Georgia decided in the ballot papers to not write presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze as a representative of united opposition force “Power is in Unity”, but as representative of the political party “United National Movement”.

Grigol Vashadze and representatives of “United National Movement” believe that this decision is the unlawful and Central Election Commission of Georgia has fulfilled the task given by the “Georgian Dream”, in order to disorient electorate of Grigol Vashadze.

"This is another unlawful decision from the Central Election Commission of Georgia, which directly fulfills the task of "Georgian Dream". On September 28 we applied to the Central Election Commission that Grigol Vashadze will take part in elections as the representative of the joint opposition "Force is in Unity", and it should have been noted in the ballot paper. Unfortunately, the Central Election Commission (CEC) made a decision obeying the order of “Georgian Dream” and refused us. And it is strange, as, for example, in the six electoral districts where the elections of self-government are held, the candidates nominated by us will participate as the representatives of the united opposition force “Power is in Unity” and the presidential candidate from the same opposition force will not be written as candidate of “Power is in Unity”, but a candidate of “United National Movement” said Giorgi Vashadze, head of the headquarter of the presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze.

According to him, chairperson of Central Election Commission (CEC) Tamar Zhvania supported the statement of Power is in Unity and all other members of commission controlled by the Georgian Dream rejected it.

According to Tamar Zhvania, in the beginning, Grigol Vashadze was registered as a presidential candidate from United National Movement.

The United National Movement registered candidates in both the presidential and self-governing elections as candidates of United National Movement. Later, they addressed me to change the affiliation of the candidates of municipal elections from National Movement to the united opposition force Power is in Unity and I with my decree did it. They also addressed in order of the presidential election, but in this case, it was addressed to the CEC and the decision should be made by the commission. The Central Election Commission decided on the basis of the articles that regulate the presidential elections. This was an appropriate and lawful decision because the electoral code does not allow us to change the name if it is about the presidential election", said Tamar Zhvania.

Giorgi Vashadze declared that Georgian dream is in a very difficult situation and by using this kind of tricks is trying to create difficulties for Grigol Vashadze.

"I understand that you are trying to disorient our voters because we are campaigning on behalf of the United Opposition Force “Power is in Unity”. I understand that you are frightened because 11 political subjects are in this union. I understand that you want to portray this as a battle between two parties. But I want to tell you one thing - on October 28, Georgian voters will make a fair decision and will definitely pass past illegal actions that you are carrying out in Georgia. With such cheap tricks, you cannot get a result. These are illegal and unfair actions and every citizen of Georgia will give it an appropriate assessment. We will peacefully finish this illegality on elections and we will definitely reach the victory", said Giorgi Vashadze.

The question is, in fact, how this decision of CEC will affect the positions of Grigol Vashadze, fact that “United Nation Movement” underlines that will disorient electorate can be true, and it can have an effect, but another more important thing is that now Grigol Vashadze will be directly associated with only “United National Movement” and all negative beliefs about the previous Government and ruling party – “United National Movement”, that still exists in big part of society can influence the decision of the electorate that still has not decided to whom to vote. According to the research done by “Georgian Dream”, amount of people who has not made decision yet or is not going on elections is very high - 48%, so for all political subjects participating in presidential elections, this neutral electorate will be the main target, and possibly Grigol Vashadze as a candidate from “United National Movement” will have small chance to get votes from them. According to the law, the winner will be named only according to the number of ballots where only one candidate will be signed. Spoiled ballots and/or law activeness from voters on elections gives Salome Zurabishvili high chance to win.