Second round of presidential elections in Georgia came as a surprise for the ruling "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" party, but their results had practically no effect on balance of political forces in the country, expert of Vestnik Kavkaza Matvey Katkov told Radio Sputnik.
According to him, "Georgian Dream" didn't think that presidential elections were important political event, since it believed that it would achieve victory without any problems. However, results of the first round were a surprise for Bidzina Ivanishvili.
“Despite expectations of the ruling party, elections turned out to be very interesting. It was a real political competition that the Georgian Dream didn't expect. Ruling party assumed that first round would be enough to win elections, but it was wrong. Besides, candidacy of Salome Zurabishvili was chosen pretty late. Ivanishvili didn't think elections were an important event," Katkov noted.
After first round, leadership of the Georgian Dream became much more active, since victory of the opposition candidate, member of the former ruling United National Movement (UNM), Grigol Vashadze, suddenly became realistic.
However, according to Katkov, despite serious political competition, result of elections will hardly change situation in the country due to constitutional amendments, which severely limited presidential powers.
"That's why, on the one hand, presidential elections are an interesting political event, but they will hardly change anything, because real power would remain with the "Georgian Dream" even if Grigol Vashadze won," expert noted.
