Political analyst points to Georgian Dream's ability to appoint a president

In the upcoming presidential election in Georgia, the ruling Georgian Dream party will be able to appoint its own candidate to the post of the head of state due to the peculiarities of the country's electoral system. This was pointed out by Gleb Belyakov, an expert of Polylog Group, in a conversation with Izvestia on November 26.

He specified that the president will be elected by an electoral college of 300 people: 150 members of parliament (the ruling Georgian Dream has 89 seats) and 150 members of local authorities.

"The local government is also dominated by Georgian Dream, which allows it to de facto hold its representative for the presidential post. As we can see, the system differs from the American one, where electors are appointed at the state level by popular vote," explained the interlocutor of the publication.

The expert added that the last direct presidential election in Georgia was held in 2018. Then, he said, now-opposition president Salome Zurabishvili received informal support exactly from the Georgian Dream and defeated the candidate from the United National Movement, founded by former president Mikheil Saakashvili. However, Belyakov noted, over time the ruling party shifted to "pro-national politics," while Zurabishvili remained on pro-European positions.

"In 2023, Georgian Dream initiated an unsuccessful impeachment attempt. And in the 2024 elections, Zurabishvili tried to unite the opposition to "knock" her former allies out of parliament. As we see, unsuccessfully," the political analyst summarized.

According to him, the Georgian Dream's desire to hold elections before the end of this year is logical: it is a legal way to "finally get rid" of a political opponent.

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Presidential elections in Georgia will be held on December 14, and the inauguration of the new state leader will take place on December 29.

In October, parliamentary elections were held in Georgia, which were won by the Georgian Dream. Zurabishvili did not recognize the results of the vote, she was supported in this by three opposition political forces - United National Movement, Coalition for Change and Strong Georgia.

In 2017, Georgia officially abandoned the mixed system and became a parliamentary republic in which the president performs representative functions.