The governing Georgian Dream party presented on September 10 top twenty MP candidates of its party list, who will be contesting in a proportional system in the October 31 parliamentary elections.
The list is led by Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, followed by Parliament Chairperson Archil Talakvadze. Georgian Dream said Gakharia will be re-elected as PM if it wins the majority. In that case, Gakharia will have to quit the Parliament. Talakvadze will be the ruling party’s hopeful to be reelected as the Speaker.
Only two persons of the GD’s top 20 of 2016 party-list made it to the new top 20, including Gakharia and ex-Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze. The latter, who now serves as GD’s election campaign chief, is the third in the list, like four years ago.
Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani, the only continuously serving GD minister since 2012, will be the fourth in the list.
Deputy Speakers, Mamuka Mdinaradze, Kakha Kuchava, and Giorgi Kakhiani, are listed 5th, 6th and 7th, respectively. The three, together with Talakvadze and Kobakhidze are the only incumbent lawmakers that made it to the list of top 20.
The remaining 13 MP hopefuls will be the “new faces,” with Mariam Kvrivishvili, 30, Head of the Tourism Administration, occupying the 8th position. Kvrivishvili is followed by Mikheil Sarjveladze, Deputy Justice Minister and Maia Bitadze, Deputy Tbilisi Mayor.
Below is the list of top 20 candidates in GD’s party list:
- Giorgi Gakharia, the incumbent PM
- Archil Talakvadze, incumbent Parliament Chairperson
- Irakli Kobakhidze, incumbent MP, ex-Speaker
- Tea Tsulukiani, Justice Minister
- Mamuka Mdinaradze, incumbent MP
- Kakha Kuchava, incumbent MP
- Giorgi Kakhiani, incumbent MP
- Mariam Kvrivishvili, Tourism Administration Head
- Mikheil Sarjveladze, Deputy Justice Minister
- Maia Bitadze, Vice Mayor of Tbilisi, former Deputy Environment Minister
- Mikheil Daushvili, 30, Business Ombudsman
- Giorgi Amilakhvari, Tbilisi Open University Rector
- Viktor Sanikidze, Basketball player
- Maka Bochorishvili, Deputy Ambassador to the EU
- Shalva Papuashvili, lawyer, Associate Professor at Ilia State University
- Davit Kacharava, Rugby player
- Nikoloz Samkharadze, International Relations specialist, Associate Professor at Tbilisi State University;
- Giorgi Khelashvili, IR specialist; Chair of Research Center at the Parliament; Former Deputy Ambassador to the U.S.
- Mariam Lashkhi, 32, deputy head of Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency
- Beka Davituliani, Tbilisi Sakrebulo member.
The tenth convocation of the legislative body, according to recently passed changes, will consist of 120 proportional and 30 majoritarian seats (change from 77/73 ratio), while the election threshold will be fixed at 1% of votes. A party that receives less than 40% of votes will be barred from establishing a single-party government.
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