Non-parliamentary opposition cannot unite

Georgia is preparing for the local self-government elections that will be held on June 15, 2014. Various political forces are aiming for successful elections.

The Georgian Dream coalition has nominated Minister of Energy Kakha Kaladze as the head of their election headquarters. The supporters of the coalition demand victory from the coalition leaders. They do not want to see the actualization of returning to the former government of the United National Movement.

The UNM meanwhile is also attempting to regain its position. It has nominated Nika Melia as the candidate for the position of mayor of Tbilisi without holding primaries as the UNM’s Giorgi Vashadze withdrew his candidacy in favor of Melia.

As for the so-called third force – the non-parliamentary opposition - it could not unite and therefore cannot nominate a joint candidate at any of the districts for the upcoming elections. The leaders of the different small parties did not express great enthusiasm over the idea of unification and therefore the idea failed.

It is known that Free Georgia, the Christian Democratic Movement, New Rights, the Democratic Movement - United Georgia, and some others have been speculating about the idea of unification.

With the elections date approaching, representatives from the former UNM cast administration are actively speculating about political persecution from the Georgian Dream coalition.

More and more often, the representatives of the UNM blame the Georgian Dream administration in exercising injustice against their representatives.

The non-parliamentary opposition meanwhile also criticizes the coalition. The chairperson of the Democratic Movement – United Georgia, Nino Burjanadze, in particular, accuses the government of failing to implement the necessary reforms and creating a fair pre-election environment. Burjanadze encourages the diplomatic corps to interfere in this issue.

Meanwhile, the elections code has been adopted with the final hearing. New Rights also criticizes the coalition for creating such conditions where competition would be unfair.

Much criticism is heard about the failure of the current administration to provide biometric lists of voters, which had been discussed even before 2012, when the Georgian Dream coalition won the parliamentary elections.