NEW CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF GEORGIA - NCP

The New Conservative Party of Georgia (formerly known as the New Rights Party) has played a particularly important role in the present-day political life of Georgia. The idea to establish the NCP began to emerge during the time when Eduard Shevardnadze was still President and his Citizens’ Union of Georgia (CUG) was an influential force on the political stage of the country. With the face lost and the credit rating gone down to all but zero however, the CUG had found itself in need of a certain novelty to win the 1999 Parliamentary elections. The PR technicians of the CUG had chosen this novelty with precision. The so-called “new faces” were added to the electoral list of the CUG. Among these new faces were David Gamkrelidze, Levan Gachechiladze, Irakli Iashvili, David Saganelidze, George Kvirikashvili, Valeri Kvaratskhelia, David Koghuashvili, etc. They and the other new faces of the CUG believed that the party leaders – President Eduard Shevardnadze and the Chairman of Parliament Zurab Zhvania were really committed to the revival and political and economic reform of the country. However, in a few months after the 1999 parliamentary elections, the new faces realized that in reality no one needed their experience, knowledge or commitment. The only thing asked and expected of them was a meek obedience to the authorities. The first protest on the part of the new faces was triggered by the total incompletion of the 1999 state budget. Signatures with regard to holding the government accountable were collected in the Parliament. However, a majority of signatories succumbed to the pressure from Zhvania and Shevardnadze and withdrew their signatures. Among those few who rejected the withdrawal and stood firm on their principle were the chairman of the Parliament’s Healthcare Committee, David Gamkrelidze and the chairman of the Economic Reform Committee, Levan Gachechiladze. The new faces mentioned above had also refused to withdraw their signatures along with this group of the few as well. After this protest, events developed in the following order:

On May 17, 2000, at Mr. Gamkrelidze’s initiative, a special commission to inquire into the reasons for the 300-million GEL budget deficits in 1999 was formed in the parliament. In 6 months, Mr. Gamkrelidze submitted a conclusion to the parliament and told the whole truth as to what were the actual reasons for the huge budget deficit in 1999.

On September 8, 2000 in order to overcome the difficult situation in the country and to get the public actively involved in the ongoing processes, 35 professional individuals founded a public organization – the New Movement. The majority of the founders were the “new faces” of the CUG.

On September 17, 2000, in order to change the ongoing political processes to the benefit of the country, the New Faction (Group) was created in the Parliament that elected David Gamkrelidze as its chairman.

Despite the small membership, the New Faction (at that point there were only ten members), managed to significantly change the situation in the Parliament. The faction introduced a completely different and new approach into Georgian politics. At that time, it should be noted, that being a member of the New Faction was a great risk as the authorities were referring to any means at their disposal to intimidate and defeat the members of the New Faction. That said, this had little influence on the resolve of the faction members. They remained firmly committed to their principles. All of them had left the parliamentary positions without hesitation and had laid foundations to a new political movement in the country.

The original membership of the New Faction consisted of David Gamkrelidze (presently NCP chairman), Levan Gachechiladze, Pikria Chikhradze, Gia Karkarashvili, Irakli Iashvili, David Saganelidze (presently NCP Secretary General), David Koghuashvili, Dodo Shelia, George Kvirikashvili, and Valeri Kvaratskhelia.

At the first conference of the faction David Gamkrelidze stated: “The main rationale behind the establishment of the group is that its members have no desire whatsoever to condone the bitter and already deep-rooted reality in the Parliament, which demands that MPs should turn a blind eye to the current difficult situation in the country. The people who are members of this faction have real power to stand up against the existing lawlessness, fraud, and deception of the people”.

To this day, the NCP members stand united over those words uttered at the first day of the establishment of the New Faction.

On June 15, 2001, on the basis of the New Faction, New Movement, and Neo-Conservative Union, a new political party - the New Conservative Party of Georgia - was formed. Levan Gachechiladze was elected as NCP chairman and David Gamkrelidze as co-chairman.

In only a year from its formation, the New Conservatives achieved considerable results. In the local elections held on June 2, 2002, NCP came out first nation-wide and third on Tbilisi scale. After the victory in the local elections, the party set itself preparing for the parliamentary elections. A few months prior to the November 2, 2003 parliamentary elections, the NCP 2nd Congress elected David Gamkrelidze as a new chairman. Despite many an unfavorable condition and despite the high likelihood that the Shevardnadze team would rig the elections, the New Conservatives managed to successfully overcome the established 7 percent threshold. A number of parties boycotted the November 2, 2003 election results accusing the authorities of fraud. This triggered fierce public discontent nation-wide, which eventually resulted in the toppling of Shevardnadze’s regime.

Despite the just outrage of the people, NCP considered it unacceptable that the government should be changed by means of street demonstrations, as they believed it was merely unconstitutional. Therefore, they openly made it clear that they would not join the street-gone political movements. They could not be scared by those baseless allegations that were coming from the streets and had remained totally loyal to their principles.

Soon, the November 2, 2003 parliamentary election results were declared invalid and repeat elections were scheduled for March 28, 2004. Before the elections there was very little time left. Everyone, within and without the country was convinced that the New Conservatives would not succeed. The country was still engulfed by the euphoria that unused the November Revolution and given the situation it was difficult for anyone to believe that the “non-revolutionist” party would succeed. Despite all doubts, the success was achieved. By participating successfully in the repeat elections, the New Conservatives showed once again that they had impeccably overcome the 7% barrier in the previous November 2, 2003 elections. NCP united with another center-right party – Industry will Save Georgia – IWSG. This forging resulted in a successful overcoming of the 7 percent threshold and the two parties established a new opposition faction, the Group of Right (Conservative) Opposition – Industrials, New Conservatives. Today, this group and the New Conservative Party per se are the leading opposition power, which are always quick to openly raise their voice at every unfair or illegal act on the part of the authorities.

In October, 2006 the parliamentary by-elections were scheduled by the authorities in 5 election districts. The opposition managed to nominate common candidatures. In order to ascertain the candidatures, primaries were held in all districts. NRP took part in three districts out of five and won all of them. However, all opposition candidates were defeated by the authorities.

In 2005 the New Rights Party became a member of the IDU (International Democrat Union).

In 2007 the Young Rights became a member of the YEPP (Youth of the European People’s Party) and NRP representative Irina Pruidze was elected as a YEPP Vice President.

In November 2007 the NRP did not participate in the protest actions, following to scandalous statements of former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili and his detainment, but immediately joined the demonstration after riot police started to violently disperse people, and were fiercely violated together with other protesters.
NRP chairman David Gamkrelidze ran for January 5, 2008 presidential elections as the nominee of three parties (NRP, Industrials and National-Democrats).

In May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections NRP participated as a coalition “United Opposition” and took 5 mandates, 2 out of them were single seat constituencies in Tbilisi districts (the only two districts won by the opposition). However, due to total electoral fraud, the New Rights boycotted the election final results and refused to take the mandates.

In December, 2008 the New Rights Party announced an alliance with the Republican Party of Georgia. Chief aim of the political alliance is to bring the country out of a grave political, economic and military crises, for what it is necessary to set up a Democratic Alternative, change the authorities within the shortest term by the means of free and fair elections and ensure peace, security and democratic guarantees of welfare in the country.