Elections campaign launched

By holding a huge rally in the center of Tbilisi, the opposition coalition Georgian Dream kicked off its election campaign. The ruling government meanwhile has been working in pre-election campaign mode for almost half a year now. As of now, the exact date of the elections is not known. They will presumably take place in October, so there is enough time for further shaping of the parties' pre election positions. The May 27th rally was not significant with its verbal messages, it lasted only one-hour and nothing new was stated there. It was significant however with regard to its scale; the meeting in the center of Tbilisi was very impressive. Some have claimed that never in Georgia's modern history were so many people present at a single rally. The people who carried out Rose revolution numbered well under a quarter of the people present on May 27. Though official information sources state that less than 40, 000 attended the demonstration, there were clearly more than 100, 000. This high scale show of support proved the support the Georgian Dream coalition presently has within civil society. Famous Georgian footballer Kakha Kaladze, who currently represents the Georgian Dream publicly, applied to President Saakashvili asking him not to run. However, it is unlikely that the ruling power will go just like Shevardnadze left in 2003. It is doing everything possible to retain its power and position in the country. The practice in post-Soviet Georgia shows that elections are won by the ruling power which holds the elections. For the last two-years, different opposition forces have been asking the ruling administration to amend the elections code and introduce changes that would secure the fairness of the elections. One example would be the introduction of biometric IDs, which would bring to a minimum the fraud and manipulation that has existed in the past. However, the ruling administration refuses to do so. Despite the current situation, the opposition coalition headed by Ivanishvili can still make a bid on the elections though it knows that the ruling party exercises big pressure on the voters. It also has a monopoly on countrywide TV stations, administrative resources, using new methods of intimidation, blackmailing and so on to force the population to vote for the ruling United National Movement. All these were clearly indicated in the message sent by the US State Department to Georgia and aired by US Ambassador to Georgia John Bass. The opposition does its best to check the list of the voters. The representatives of the opposition who skeptically observe to win the elections in a fair way see that the only possibility to win the elections is through the unity of opposition. Both sides realized that most decisive in the elections will be the majoritarian elections (Directly elected candidates). This is the situation were the ruling administration has a big advantage, as only 30% of votes would be enough to secure victory, as there could be many different representatives of diverse opposition forces. The ruling party could easily collect 30% without much manipulation. So the major task of the opposition is to manage and unite the remaining 70%, analysts believe.

Some observers think that there is enough time for the opposition to find a kind of compromise and try to coordinate their moves with regard to the majoritarian candidates and support united majoritarian candidates together. So, the performance has started and a play will be staged in front of the people.