"A split in Georgia's main opposition party could prove useful." Opinion

Split in the Georgian opposition

On January 28, an election will be held for a new chairman of Georgia’s largest opposition party, the United National Movement. The candidates are acting chairman Nika Melia, National Movement member Levan Khabeishvili, activists Giorgi Mumladze and Nona Mamulashvili, who left the party a month ago.

The election became necessary after disagreements between the current chairman, Nika Melia, and other members of the movement. Observers say the elections will lead to a split in the party and thus a shake-up of the opposition as a whole.

But according to Georgian sociologist Iago Kachkachishvili, this could be a beneficial process:

“The National Movement, as the largest opposition party, has always felt the resentment of the smaller parties for them having to be in the background and not being able to get enough seats in parliament. Other opposition parties, sometimes willingly, sometimes not so much, tried to get political dividends by deliberately falling into the orbit of the National Movement.

Now the National Movement may not be as numerous as they are at present. Whoever loses the election will most likely take a significant part of the voters of this party anyway, because there are leaders from both sides in the leadership.

Without this political vacuum cleaner, maybe other opposition parties will finally pull together and become stronger, especially since the number of undecided voters is still very significant.”

Split in the Georgian opposition

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