In May 2013, Georgia’s Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili nominated Giorgi Margvelashvili, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, to represent the "Georgian Dream" coalition in the upcoming presidential elections. His candidature was unanimously approved during the meeting of the "Georgian Dream".
G.Margelashvili, 43, served as a rector of Georgian Institute for Public Affairs in 2000-2006 and 2010-2012, later joined the Ivanishvili government as Minister of Education and was appointed a Deputy Prime Minister in February 2013. Major in Philosophy, Margelashvili was an ally and a close friend of Georgia’s former PM Zurab Jvaniya. For several months, he served as an adviser to former Speaker of the Parliament Nino Burjanadze’s as she joined the opposition. He is said to enjoy close friendship ties with Ivanishvili. They met some year and a half ago and unlike most of his line-minded colleagues Margelashvili was engaged with propaganda issues for the "Georgian Dream".
David Bakradze, a candidate from Saakashvili’s party, is a former Parliament Speaker and a Minister of Foreign Affairs. "Joint National Movement" candidate wields more clout and is expected to be a tough opponent for Margelashvili. Bakradze managed to maintain his reserve and stay out of the scandals at the height of the critical phase of Georgia’s politics (1).
Social survey conducted per National Democratic Institute’s request this June in Georgia revealed that 29% of respondents would like to see Margvelashvili as a President while 10% favored then unknown candidate from the "Joint National Movement". Other names included Nino Burjanadze – 5%, Giorgi Targamadze – 4%, Shalva Natelashvili – 3% and Salome Zurabashvili 3%. Margelashvili’s rating stood at 45% while Bakradze’s approval rating was 48%.
Survey demonstrated that since November 2012, number of citizens supporting "Georgian Dream" dropped from 63% to 52% whereas support for "Joint National Movement" remained unchanged at 10%. 47% of respondents named "Joint National Movement" as the strongest opposition party in the country.
Most local experts have no doubts that Margvelashvili will emerge a victor. According to them, President is chosen not by the people but Ivanishvili. Presidential hopeful from the "Labor" Party Shalva Natelashvili described Margelashvili as a "manageable figure that lacks ambition".
In the capacity of the Minister of Education, Margelashvili made into media spotlight by slamming proposed changes to the Labour Code calling them "dreadful" for the business. He also came under fire of criticism on the issue of school textbook orders where he was allegedly providing lucrative contracts to "friendly" companies. Known to have abandoned positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education in July, Margvelashvili is commonly recognized as someone who lacks particular political experience and a team. By the way, despite having been invited to head-to-head debate by David Bakradze, Margvelashvili declined the proposal, by saying that he only accepted a debate with the participation of all the candidates.
Nomination of Margvelashvili came as a surprise for many in Georgia. Despite having such options of viable candidates as Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze and a Defense Minister Irakliy Alasaniya, Ivanishvili announced that Margvelashvili was his personal favorite for a nomination. With respect to the absence of Alasaniya's name among the presidential candidates, Ivanishvili said: "Irakliy Alasaniya occupies a particularly good position as he manages a powerful ministry. We do have concrete plans on Irakliy for the future".
According to the Constitution to take effect upon the presidential elections scheduled for October, powers of the Prime Minister powers would be increased owing to curtailing of Presidential ones. Georgia’s political scientists believe that the incumbent Prime Minister seeks a nomination of a candidate with little ambitions, someone loyal, to cause no problems in the future. He wishes to consolidate his power to govern the country for several years to come. However, for many Georgians the position of a President still remains a prominent one and this idea persevered through Bidzina’s tenure.
Ivanishvili declared that upcoming elections in October are set to become his country’s first when elections are held in European fashion and administrative resources are not allocated in favor of any candidate. However, based on the survey conducted in the social networks by the "Newtimez.az" - the analytical and information web portal, Margvelashvili stood little chance of winning unless government resources were mobilized to that end.
Another presidential hopeful, the "Democratic movement – United Georgia" candidate, and Saakashvili’s ex-ally and ex-president Nino Burjanadze also must not be written off. Survey by the "Newtimes.az" revealed that the latter still enjoyed popularity with the people (2).
For now, projecting the outcome of the elections is difficult. Although one thing is clear – regardless of the winner of the Presidential elections, Georgia will refrain from making drastic changes to its West-oriented police, something to setback normalization of Georgia-Russia relations and thus, the issue of restoration of territorial integrity of Georgia.
Ramil Tagiyev