The parties which make up Georgia’s governing coalition will participate in October’s parliamentary elections separately rather than on a joint ticket, it was announced on Thursday.
The coalition, formed after the 2012 elections produced no overall winner, includes the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party, the Republican Party, and three others.
“Our decision to leave the coalition is due to our own political agenda and not because of third-party outsiders, local Stalinists, anti-NATO factions or those who use private videos as blackmail,” the Republican Party said in a statement.
Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, of the larger Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party, confirmed the move after speaking to lawmakers from the Republican Party who had decided to run separately.
The coalition is broadly pro-EU and supports a liberal market economy, but there are significant differences between its parties.
The coalition dominated Georgian politics after beating former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement in the 2012 elections, after which Bidzina Ivanishvili served as prime minister for one year.
No changes to the composition of the governing coalition are planned before the autumn elections, according to Kvirikashvili.
“Stability of the government, regardless of party affiliations, is very important,” he said in Tbilisi. “We will try to continue our work in this mode before the elections.”
SOURCE: commonspace.eu and agencies
