Some non-Parliamentary opposition parties have said they will take part in the local elections scheduled for May next year. Irakli Alasania, the leader of the Alliance for Georgia, has stated that he will stand for the post of Tbilisi Mayor. Members of his party declare that the Alliance has concluded that the most appropriate way to conduct the political battle is through elections. 

“The opposition declared at the beginning that we will choose only peaceful means of battle,” says the member of the Alliance and leader of the New Rights Davit Gamkrelidze. He adds that Saakashvili has announced that the next local government elections will take place on 30 May and the Tbilisi Mayor will be elected directly, and therefore the Alliance has accepted the Government’s challenge and will defeat the Government at this election. 

“It will take a serious battle to change the electoral environment, and for this it is necessary to have leaders whom the people trust as candidates. I think that Irakli Alasania and Sozar Subari are two who will gain people’s support and trust.” The Alliance, which unites three opposition parties - Our Georgia-Free Democrats, the Republicans and the New Rights - has already declared that as well as Irakli Alasania running for Mayor a new face in the Alliance, the former Public Defender Sozar Subari, will be its nominee for Chair of Tbilisi City Council. 

“Our Alliance is the force which will provide an alternative to the Government, make changes in the country and give society the feeling of participation. This force can come to power through elections,” thinks leader of the Alliance Irakli Alasania. However before that it will change the electoral environment, as part of its three-pronged strategy which also involves strengthening democratic institutions and court independence.  

The date of 30 May 2010 was Saakashvili’s suggestion, made at the UN General Assembly, but it has not been officially confirmed that the elections will be held on this date. Neither is it known under what system the elections will be conducted. At present Tbilisi City Council elects the Mayor, and only in Tbilisi will the Mayor now be elected directly. The financial implications of this are also yet to be considered by Parliament. 

The representatives of the Alliance say that one of the key priorities of the working group on electoral reform is to abolish the simple majority system in which the candidate with the most votes, but not necessarily more than 50 percent, is declared the winner. It favours a system in which the top two candidates will face a run-off election if no one achieves 50% of the vote. 

At present Irakli Alasania is the only politician who has declared publicly that he will stand in these elections. The Labour Party and Iralki Okruashvili’s party Democratic Movement - United Georgia do not intent to participate. They say that the summer of 2010 is far away and they want to end Saakashvili’s regime earlier. The Conservative party has called on the opposition to unite in order to remove Saakashvili’s Government and identify a common leader through primary elections rather than waiting until 2010 to change the Government. 

Nino Burjanadze and Salome Zourabichvili’s positions are unknown as yet. However Burjanadze has considered Alasania a competitor from the beginning and there is very little chance that she will support him. Former Presidential candidate of the United Opposition Levan Gachechiladze, also considered a possible candidate for Tbilisi Mayor, now has few supporters and has said he is not going to fight for this position as his main goal is simply to destroy the Saakashvili regime. “I will only take part in the Mayoral elections if the united opposition and people demand this and it gives us more guarantees that we will take Tbilisi from Saakashvili,” says Gachechiladze 

“My colleagues who are saying that the 30 May is far away and the elections must be held before this date, cannot offer us a plan of action which will make the Government appoint other elections. Today I can say for sure that the way to dismantle Saakashvili’s regime is to win the Mayoral elections,” says Davit Gamkrelidze.  

The Christian Democrats, the leading Parliamentary opposition party, has declared that if the opposition does not have a common candidate it will put up one of its own. But it is unlikely that this candidate would be its leader Giorgi Targamadze. The Parliamentary opposition has demanded direct Mayoral elections in four other cities: Kutaisi, Rustavi, Poti and Batumi. 

Members of the majority group in Parliament do not agree that the Tbilisi Mayor should be directly elected. 

“Local government elections should be conducted the same way throughout Georgia. I think offering direct elections for Mayor of Tbilisi to the opposition is absolutely inappropriate, and it does not matter who made this offer. I am sure representatives of the opposition will consider this election as a stepping stone towards the Presidency. Let us think what awaits us in future - continual monthly and annual elections because the newly -elected Mayor will want to become President and we would still have to hold elections for Mayor of Tbilisi. We will live in an endless election campaign,” says National Movement MP Akaki Bobokhidze. 

As the proposal to directly elect the Tbilisi Mayor is not yet law, it is possible that the law will not be changed at all. In any case the majority has already announced that it is necessary to think further about this issue. This statement coincided with Irakli Alasania’s official announcement, which may just have been a coincidence but the future will show. But the fact is that as soon as Irakli Alasania declared he was going to run for Mayor of Tbilisi the Parliamentary majority said there was no point holding direct elections. 

“The Government cannot reverse its decision on the direct election of the Tbilisi Mayor because it may be perceived as a weakness of the Government – it would be seen as if Alasania said he would stand so the Government got scared. The Government will not and cannot put itself in that position. However the vagueness in the National Movement over who its own candidate would be had evaporated. No one is going to stand except Ugulava,” says one of the leaders of the Parliamentary minority Levan Vephkhvadze  
 
Davit Gamkhrelidze says that the Alliance will force the Government to change the electoral code and this is the main reason the group got involved in this process. “Philip Gordon’s last statement gave us more hope. He said that changing the electoral code in Georgia is one of the West’s priorities. They personally are regulating this process and waiting for concrete results to emerge. We have every possibility to change the electoral environment significantly but the main thing is that we must believe in the elections and society must too. If Saakashvili falsifies the elections again then rallies will be more justified. I assure you that in that event people will not go back to their homes as they did on 21 January 2008,” says Davit Gamkrelidze.