It’s great to see an analysis of the current situation, thank you for putting this together. It is noticable that you didn’t mention the New Georgia party that launched a couple of weeks back. They closed Rustaveli for the launch. Some insides on this, the party leadership was trained in Ukraine at a Political Centre and it would appear that there is both money and strategy behind them. Born out of the discredited NUM there is every possibility a dark horse such as this can emerge, for as in Poland (which had a very similar political constellation as a young democracy in the early 2000’s) a party that does not have baggage has the advantage, because there is nothing to smear them with.

It seems that we are looking at a very cynical electorate (and understandably so) what was signposted as a dream has come up somewhat short. They made some good reforms early on, but failed to communicate these effectively, they also faced a largely critical media. There is a large amount of mistrust amongst voters, who demand clear leadership — that is something that has been sorely lacking. Without using empirical data I would propose that the leader who displays the qualities of leadership best will come out on top. We will be looking at a very personality focused campaign.

It is to be hoped that the myriad of issues will be addressed, for the improvement of the economy and the standard of living of all Georgians. Conditions to make FDI more attractive are absolutely essential so as to give impetus to the economy.

We are in for an interesting summer and autumn.