Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man and leader of the ruling party had announced "large-scale political reform" under pressure following mass street protests in June. But he failed to adopt promised electoral reform. Georgian parliament couldn't adopt transition to the proportional election system. Majority of MPs voted against transition.
The action of parliament led mass protests of opposition. Thousands of opposition supporters started the rally on Thursday. The number of demonstrators reached 10,000. They accused Ivanishvili of orchestrating the bill's failure.
Georgian political analyst Gela Vasadze shared his views with Eurasia Diary about the protests.
He confirms that the majority of MPs who opposed the bill has close contact with Ivanishvili and he has a huge impact on the decisions of MPs.
Georgian analyst considers Ivanishvili's authority very fragile.
"Anything can lead to the end of Ivanishvili’s reign. Both the transition to a proportional system and the rejection of this," political analyst says.
G. Vasadze also values the potential of Bidzina Ivanishvili. He thinks that Ivanishvili has big resources.
"The political potential of the ruling party in Georgia consists of several components - the financial resource of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the local administrative resource, the resource of their business structures, the media resource and the most underestimated, because unknown to the general public, Ivanishvili’s back-office resource using modern technology."
Georgian political analyst doesn't see an inevitable need for boycotting and requirement for extraordinary elections.
"Opposition can reach victory without boycotting. They have a chance to win in elections which will be held next year," Political expert says.
G. Vasadze considers the current political system is very mixed in Georgia.
"According to the Georgian Constitution, parliament should consist of houses. Upper house should be elected by the majority system and lower should be elected by proportional. It is not implemented because of violation of border integrity," Vasadze says.
Georgian MP Azer Suleymanov also shared his opinion with Eurasia Diary.
He thinks that the transition to the proportional system could be the end of Ivanishvili's in 2020.
A. Suleymanov considers Ivanishivil's move as a blunder.
"Maybe something can be changed within one year, but Georgian people will not forgive him. Some MPs of ruling party exits."
Georgian MP says that all oppositions united now against Georgian current government. "Now it is time to require the resignation of the whole cabinet. We gave them a country on the railway, they have ruined everything."
"Most of the diplomatic corpses including EU and US representatives showed him the red card," Suleymanov concluded his opinion.
By Ulvi Ahmedli