The ruling Georgian Dream party unveiled the first twenty MP candidates of its party list for the October elections, with the party’s billionaire founder leading a lineup that includes incumbent MPs, officials, as well as Olympic champions and other fresh faces.
In a break with tradition, the party’s number one candidate will be Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and current honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, in his first such appearance on the proportional list. He is followed by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, and the next on the list are GD Chairman Irakli Garibashvili, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, and GD Majority Leader Mamuka Mdinaradze
The male-dominated list includes five female candidates, the same number as in the last election list. Two Olympic champions also made the list, which includes a number of fresh faces from business and the arts as well. Two members of People Power, the hardline offshoot of Georgian Dream, also landed among the ruling party’s top 20.
Only seven candidates from Georgian Dream’s top 20 list from the last election made it into the current lineup.
“We must remember that October 26 elections are not ordinary elections. This is a decisive referendum where the public must decide for good whether it chooses war or peace, whether it chooses moral degradation of the society or traditional values, whether it chooses dark past or Georgia’s bright, European future,” Prime Minister Kobakhidze said after presenting the list at an event on September 10.
Below is the list of top 20 candidates in GD’s party list:
Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream founder and honorary chairman
Irakli Kobakhidze, incumbent Prime Minister
Irakli Garibashvili, Georgian Dream chairman, former Prime Minister
Shalva Papuashvili, Parliament Chairman
Mamuka Mdinaradze, Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader, GD Executive Secretary
Tea Tsulukiani, incumbent Culture Minister
Lasha Talakhadze, weightlifter, three times Olympics champion
Vakhtang Turnava, tech businessman
Maka Bochorishvili, incumbent MP, head of Parliament’s European Integration Committee
Geno Petriashvili, wrestler, Olympic champion
Sozar Subari, incumbent MP, member of the People’s Power faction
Mariam Kvrivishvili, member of GD political council, former MP
Anri Okhanashvili, incumbent MP, head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee
Nikoloz Samkharadze, incumbent MP, head of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee
Eka Chichinadze, Vice President of the International Association of Women Artists
Shota Berekashvili, businessman, founder of BK Construction
Levan Makhashvili, Head of Cabinet of the Chairman of the Parliament.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, incumbent MP, member of the People’s Power faction
Giorgi Gabunia, lawyer and singer
Lika Shartava, civil servant, psychologist, granddaughter of national hero Zhiuli Shartava
On October 26, Georgians will head to the polls to vote in their first fully proportional elections and one of the most tense races in more than a decade, dubbed by President Salome Zurabishvili as a “referendum” between Russia and Europe. Parties must pass the 5 percent threshold to make it into the Parliament.
Georgian Dream is the first major political force to present its top candidates ahead of the crucial vote.
