Georgia: Governing Party to Rely on Star Power as It Aims to Dominate Next Parliament

With less than two months to go before Georgia's parliamentary elections, attention is focusing on whether or not President Mikheil Saakashvili's governing party will opt to change its "face" to keep its majority in parliament. With four prominent business executives tapped to represent the party at the polls, some observers believe that a makeover is already in the works.

Complete party lists will not be released until April 21, but some political observers believe the incomplete lists are a clear indication that the United National Movement -- recently renamed as the United National Movement for a Victorious Georgia -- is rethinking its strategy for the May 21 vote.

According to the country's amended election code, the new parliament will have just 150 seats -- down from an inflated 235 -- which will be divided into 75 single mandate (majoritarian) seats and 75 seats distributed among contending parties based on a proportional vote.

Leading opposition figures are already down for a range of the 75 first-past-the-post races, but longstanding political celebrities from the United National Movement remain in the shadows.

The new parliament will contain 10 representatives from Tbilisi, elected in first-past-the-post races, and one each for Batumi, Rustavi, Kutaisi, and Poti, the country's remaining large cities. Races for the remaining 61 individual-candidate seats are scattered among the country's rural areas.

Even less information is available about the United National Movement's party list. Malkhaz Matsaberidze, a professor of political science at Tbilisi State University, believes that the ruling party is bowing to public pressure and moving some of the most outspoken and combative of its members to the background in an attempt to win back some of its old supporters.

"People who actively participated in the [Rose] revolution have been pushed back and their place has been freed for the businessmen," Matsaberidze said. He was referring to such figures as MPs Giga Bokeria and Givi Targamadze, two of the most outspoken and combative United National Movement members, whose role was downplayed during the January presidential campaign. "There will be writers, athletes, [on the party list] and that speaks of a political crisis