The victory of the opposition bloc "Georgian Dream" of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, leading in the parliamentary elections in Georgia on party lists and single-member districts, gives hope for an improvement in the dialogue between Moscow and Tbilisi, the executive director of the Russian Center of Political Studies"North-South", editor-in-chief of VK Alexei Vlasov believes.
Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on Monday. According to the CEC, after counting 20.74% of the vote, or the records from 781 polling stations out of 3766, the coalition of Ivanishvili "Georgian Dream" scored 53.89% (218,000,851 votes), with the "United National Movement" of President Mikheil Saakashvili on 41.01% (166,000,537 votes).
"Speaking at a recent meeting, Ivanishvili clearly stated that one of the priorities of his activities in the event of success in the parliamentary and presidential elections and the subsequent forming of the new format will be a new format of economic relations with Russia. This means that the dialogue between Moscow and Tbilisi reflects the views of the majority of Georgian voters. It's not an afterthought and not the message of his advisor; Ivanishvili himself used this argument talking to voters. So, this trend will be a priority in case of the success of the opposition," Vlasov told RIA Novosti.
According to the analyst, this is very important because it destroys the myth that Georgian voters are not interested in Russia. The reason for the victory of the Georgian opposition is, according to Vlasov, the successful ending of Ivanishvili’s campaign and the complete failure of image projects of the ruling party. "This is a competent PR campaign, especially in the last month with Ivanishvili’s speeches at meetings changing quite dramatically. Ivanishvili’s controlled media have become more aggressive, working in a different vein, they have became more specific, targeted toward achieving a definite result, which appears to be achieved, according to preliminary results. Secondly there are the mistakes of the authorities. The scandal of torture in the prison did great harm to the image of the ruling party, because it was associated with the personalities of Saakashvili and Vano Merabishvili, who was a potential successor to the current Georgian leadership," the expert noted.
According to Vlasov, the time for the disclosure of evidence of torture in prisons was very well chosen.
"Those voters who had not yet made their choice at the time, were apparently so outraged by the broadcast of these videos that they chose to vote with their hearts. This also affected the results of the party of power in the regions and in Tbilisi,” he added.
According to preliminary data, in the single-seat constituencies "Georgian Dream" is leading in 28 of the 73 districts. Saakashvili's party is leading in 24 districts. Data for the 21 other districts are not available on the CEC website.
The other parties participating in the elections are not yet crossing the 5 percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
77 of 150 members of the unicameral Parliament of Georgia are elected by proportional representation, that is, according to party lists, 73 more parliamentarians will be elected in single-member constituencies.
The Georgian parliament is elected for four years. The following year, after the presidential election, the country will change the socio-political system in which both the parliament and the government, in particular the Prime Minister, will have significantly more power.
When in August 2008 Russia recognized the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two autonomous regions which were part of Georgia and sought independence from it even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tbilisi broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow.
