The list of majoritarian candidates presented by “Dream”, in a sense, is a sort of diagnosis – not only of the election campaign that the government plans to carry out, but also of the party’s future style of leadership, should they win the election.
The principle by which the majoritarian candidates were chosen made it very clear that “Dream” is ready to buy votes. At least half of the candidates are some of Georgia’s biggest businessmen, some have already been in parliament for financial gain, and are now going to use the money they earned to buy votes by utilizing their political resources.
This is the category of politicians who give their political loyalty in exchange for profits from the state budget. As a result, their business is growing, and “Dream” always has the obedient majority and their votes will be given to pass bills when necessary.
We did not see any new faces in the presented list, which means that today "Dream" has become toxic. It is evident that the government has lost its ability to attract new faces and has nominated those who can buy votes. In total, among the majoritarians from “Dream" , there are only 2-3 candidates that have their own personal rating.
Consequently, the opposition has a real chance to win a part of the majoritarian electoral districts, provided that it fulfils a number of conditions. Selection of candidates will be integral to the success of opposition. In most majoritarian districts, (with one or two exceptions), the formula for opposition is government money vs the authority of the opposition among the Georgian population. The question is how successful and forward-looking will the opposition be in selecting its candidates.
Khatuna Lagasidze, Georgian Strategic Analysis Center (GSAC)
