The last elections for both the head of government and Parliament, which legitimized Shevardnadze's leadership, had been conducted in October 1992. Prior to that, the post of President was held by the nationalist leader and former  Soviet-era  dissident,  Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Gamsakhurdia was ousted by the combined military forces of the opposition in early 1992, and shortly thereafter Eduard Shevardnadze-Georgian communist leader from 1972 to 1985 and then Gorbachev's foreign minister-returned to Georgia. When elections were held in October 1992 for a new Parliament. A vole was also held for the post Speaker of Parliament. Shevardnadze ran unopposed and was later given the post head of Government.

The level of voter turnout for the 1995 elections was 68.9 percent. well above the 50 percent minimum required by Georgian law. This was achieved in spite of the fact that the break away regions of Abkhazia and South-Ossetia prevented elections from being held on their territories.

Shevardnadze won the 1995 presidential election handily in the first round, with over 74 percent of the vote. Shevardnadze was opposed by five candidates, including three leaders of various communist factions. His leading opponent, Jumber Patiashvili, who was Georgia's communist party leader from 1985 to 1989, received only about 19 percent.

There were several important changes in the electoral system for parliament as compared to 1992. Though the number of deputies chosen by each system remained the same (150 from party list and then one of cacti of 85 single member districts) a threshold was introduced barring seats to parties not gaining five percent of the vote. The five percent barrier. which has been applied in Russia and many other countries. is designed to force parties into mergers, and discourage smaller parties from attempting to run on their own, Despite this, an even larger number of parties and blocs registered in 1995 than in 1992-54 as opposed to 35.

As a consequence of the number of parties competing and dispersion of voters' choices. only three parties succeeded in surpassing the five percent barrier. Thus the new Parliament. even though legal and having obtained its current membership through what were widely regarded by international observers as free elections, nonetheless represents the views of a minority of the population-less than 30, percent of the voters voted for the three parties that received the seats allocated by the party list system.

The Georgian Union of Citizens. formed in 1994 at the initiative of Shevardnadze and his supporters in Parliament, was the most successful in the elections-though it received only about one-third the number of votes cast for Shevardnadze in the presidential race. The Citizen's Union is a strange amalgamation consisting of the Georgian Green party leading communist-era intellectuals with ties to Shevardnadze, and a number of unaffiliated Shevardnadze supporters from the previous Parliament; it is widely viewed in Georgia as the government party. The number of seats it won (111) gives it close to a majority in the new Parliament, and the addition of other pro - Shevard- nadze legislators easily gave him effective control over the  Parliament A close associate of Shevardnadze and lead of tile Georgian Greens. Zurad Zhvania was elected Speaker of the new Parliament. Given that the post of president was already enhanced in the new Georgian constitution. Shevardnadze enjoys a combination of democratic legitimacy and dominance over political institutions that is virtually unmatched in the former Soviet republics.

Despite Shevardnadze's popularity and power, it is impossible for the political issues that face Georgia to be decided to the satisfaction of all the various interests in Georgian politics. These unresolved questions include the nature of relations with Russia and the CIS the terms under which Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be reincorporated into Georgia. and the direction of economic reform, which began to be implemented only in 1995. Shevardnadze’s  opposition has been weakened as a consequence of the elections. but riot silenced.

Two other parties made it into the Parliament, only one of which can be considered an opposition party. The National Democratic Party finished a distant second with almost eight percent. This nationalist party was founded by Gia Tchanturia. who was assassinated in late 1994 and is now led by his widow Irma Sarishvili-Tchanturia. The party is linked to the Christian Democratic Union. White it initially supported Shevardnadze the party has shifted to the opposition as a result of Shevardnadze's turn to Russia and the CIS as a way to regain Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The third party in Parliament the Alt-Georgian Revival Union, supports Shevardnadze on most issues. The Revival Union is based in the conservative south of the republic. particularly in Adjaria, where its leader Aslan Abashidze has established a personal fiefdom. The party received close to seven percent of the vote.

The other parties on the ballot represented the widest possible range of political views on these and other issues of any election held in Georgia: yet the result produced by the electoral system does not provide for any substantial representation of these views in Parliament. The parties participating in the vote ranged from communists to radical nationalists front supporters of the legacy of Zviad Gamsakhurdia - who died under still mysterious circumstances in late l992-to liberal democrats. Gamsakhurdia’s supporters have claimed. with some justification, that they have been  subject to arbitrary arrest and harassment under the Shevardnadze government. The communist  party, outlawed in the later stages of the Gamsakhurdia period. also re-emerged for the 1995 elections in the form of several groups, including a Stalinist party and two more mainstream communist parties.

While the elections may have created a Parliament that is likely to be more "businesslike." to use Shevardnadze's description, it also runs the risk of alienating major political forces that are not represented and that were prepared to play a more constructive role within the system. Because of splintering of like-minded parties neither the communists nor the supporters of former president Gamsakhurdia were elected to Parliament. If these groups had consolidated into blocks, they both could have easily exceeded the 5 percent barrier. 

Another result of the elections is that many of the most prominent figures in Georgian political life are now deprived of seats in Parliament and the media attention that this commands. Overall, only about twenty percent of the new members of Parliament were in the old one. Among those no longer in Parliament were Irakli Tsereteli and his national Independence Party a party that had been in the forefront of the Georgian national movement and a  vocal opponent of both Gamsakhurdia and Shevardnadze. Also missing is Akaki Asatiani. who had been the speaker of Gamsakhurdia's Parliament, and his monarchist Union of Georgian Traditionalists. The United Republicans, a coalition party of liberals and reformers who had been influential beyond their numbers in drafting legislation in the previous Parliament. also failed to gain a place in the Parliament.

Another immediate consequence of elections was the final consolidation of Shevardnadze's power at the expense of one of his most dangerous previous supporters. Jaba loseliani. leader of the paramilitary group Mkhedrioni that helped oust Gamsakhurdia, was implicated in the August 1995 assassination attempt oil Slievardnadze and arrested as soon as it became clear from the election returns that his parliamentary immunity was gone.

One possible on outcome of the elections is the renew a of extra parliamentary politics - a well-worn path to political popularity used by a wide variety of groups to express dissatisfaction with government polities. In the past, Georgian politics has been marked by the repeated use of unauthorized street demonstrations, hunger strikes. and the use of armed organizations of followers for "self-defense" and intimidation if political opponents. This may once a gain become the only outlet for political participation by a significant part of tile Georgian political spectrum-an outcome that could cast doubt on the apparent consolidation of Georgian politics brought about by Shevardnadze's electoral victories.

Table. Percentage or votes received by Major Parties and Blocs in the 1995 Voting
(by Party List and Total Number 91 Seats Received, including single-seat districts)

Below 5 percent barrier: 

Union of Georgian Traditionalists  4.22 2
Socialist Party of Georgia             3.79 3
Union of Geo. Reformers National Agreement 2.89 1
Merab Kostava Society               2.34 0
Political Union "Tanadgoma"        2.15 3
National Independence Party of Georgia 1.87 0
United Republican Party of Georgia         4.65 1
"Progress" bloc                                        1 1.37

Communist parties: 

"United Communist Party of Georgia
and Social Democrats" bloc 4.49 0
Communist Party of Georgia 2.07 1
Stalin Communist party 2.17 0
Combined Total: 8.73 0

Zviadist parties:

"21st Century Konstantine Gamsakhurdia
Society United Georgia" bloc    4.15 0
Way of Zviadi Voice of Nation 1.18 0
Combined Total:                      5.33 0