The Election Surprise: Aleko Elisashvili
Op-Ed
Last week’s local elections once again proved the universal truth that who pays the piper calls the tune and especially in Georgian politics. “Georgian Dream” spent about GEL 12 million on these elections and almost fully filled the seats in all city councils and self-governing city halls across Georgia. Comparing that with the GEL 1.5 million spent by all other oppositional parties taken together is ridiculous; therefore, let us talk about this year’s main discovery: Aleko Elisashvili and his 17.5% of votes in the elections.
A former journalist, the cash-strapped independent candidate Aleko Elisashvili was able to gain 1/5 of the election votes. According to the Central Election Committee data there are 919 thousand voters in Tbilisi, out of which 43.4% or 399 thousand showed up at the elections. About 70 thousand people voted for Elisashvili and perhaps this number could have been even larger had the candidate shown more political discernment and not traded his image of an “honest fighter” into that of a refined politician. Getting 70 thousand votes without spending money on the campaign is truly a great success and a highly important trend to keep in mind in light of the future presidential elections.
Elisashvili’s appearance marks the beginning of a new political era. This election proved there is demand for new faces, ones which haven’t been detected as being hidden pro-Dreamers, Misha’s tails, Bidzina’s postmen, swaying middle-of-the-roaders or those with numerous other political vices. Now, when these elections are over and the difficult period of throwing stones at each other before the coming elections begins, the question we have is, what does the main discovery of this year’s local elections plan to do?
Political expert circles once said that even if Elisashvili did win the elections, he wouldn’t be able to do his job without a team or overall political support. Therefore, sooner or later he would still have to think about creating his own political party. Apparently, this forecast has proved right and just a few days after the elections he stated he would create a party of his own, comprised of the members of his current election team.
“I will stay in politics as long as I have strength and energy,” he said. “I’m thinking of creating a political party together with my team, who are honest professionals. However, it’s too early now and before that, my organization Tiflis Hamkari will continue to serve as a platform for us to fight for Tbilisi”.
He added that he is ready to hand over the projects he has created so far to Mr. Kaladze and also offered to give him the online-platform chemitbilisi.ge free of charge. The probability of an Elisashvili-Kaladze partnership is further enhanced by the fact that although the governmental candidate Kaladze was victorious in the elections, it was far from being a triumph, plus the story of the former footballer with Guram Kashia has been added to all of this. The newly-elected Major of Tbilisi became the victim of homophobe attacks. His statement “Every human has the right to express their opinion regardless of their nationality, religion or sexual orientation,” has triggered great outrage within the Georgian March members and supporters, who are the electorate of the governmental party. Hence, the major doesn’t have much to choose from.
The fact that a new political era is underway is also proven by the fact that Elisashvili is ready to cooperate with the governmental candidate who won the elections. If this partnership really happens, it will be a precedent in the history of Georgian politics. Cooperation between the government and opposition will also demonstrate a step forward for the West. Starting with cohabitation and ending with constitutional consensus: our European partners have always called us to cooperate and this fact will show that we have finally heard their call.
Zaza Jgarkava