During his campaign rally in Gori on July 15, Bidzina Ivanishvili named his coalition Georgian Dream’s majoritarian MP candidates for Shida Kartli region’s four single-mandate constituencies.

A former lawmaker and a wealthy businessman Valery Gelashvili will run in Khashuri. Gelashvili was a member and financial backer of Republican Party, which is now in the Georgian Dream coalition. In July, 2005, when he was a majoritarian MP elected from Khashuri single-mandate constituency, Gelashvili was attacked and brutally beaten by unknown armed men in downtown Tbilisi; he blamed the authorities for that attack; in 2006 he was stripped of his MP credentials.

Davit Onoprishvili of Our Georgia-Free Democrats party will run in Kaspi single-mandate constituency. Onoprishvili was Georgia’s finance minister in 1998-2000 and head of the state-owned Georgian Railway in 2004-2005.

Leri Khabelov of Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party will run in Kareli. 1992 Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling, Khabelov is a former vice-president of Georgian National Olympic Committee.

Soso Vakhtangashvili of National Forum will run in Gori single-mandate constituency.