Ahali (; ) is a liberal,

pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Pol ...

political party in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. It was founded in 2024 by

Nika Melia Nikanor "Nika" Melia ( ka, ნიკანორ „ნიკა“ მელია; born 21 December 1979) is a Georgian politician, former chairman of the United National Movement party and former member of Parliament of Georgia. He was a memb ...

, former chairman of the United National Movement, and

Nika Gvaramia Nika Gvaramia ( ka, ნიკა გვარამია; born June 29, 1976) is a Georgian lawyer, media entrepreneur, public figure, who had held posts of Minister of Justice and Minister of Education and Science. He was the Director General ...

, former CEO of the

Rustavi 2 Rustavi 2 ( ka, რუსთავი 2, tr, "Rustavi ori") is a Georgian free-to-air television channel based in Tbilisi, that was founded in 1994 in the town of Rustavi (hence its name). It is an associate member of the European Broadcasting ...

TV channel and Mtavari Arkhi TV channel. It was a part of the Coalition for Change political alliance for the 2024 parliamentary election, receiving 10 seats in the Georgian parliament.

History

Ahali was founded on 11 March 2024 by two prominent opposition figures , Nika Melia and

. Melia was the chairman of the United National Movement from 2020 to 2023, with him being expelled from the party after losing a controversial leadership race in 2023, while Gvaramia was the CEO of

and Mtavari Arkhi and was the Founder of Mtavari Arkhi, a popular opposition TV channel. Ahali did not register as a new party, rather, they transformed an existing State for the People party into their own. Gvaramia and Melia were registered as co-chairs of Ahali. On 5 April, Ahali, along with six other pro-Western parties, issued a joint statement condemning

Georgian Dream Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GD), also colloquially known as the Kotsebi, is a Conservatism, conservative and populism, populist List of political parties in Georgia (country), political party in Georgia (country), Georgia, which has ...

’s reintroduction of the Foreign Agents bill with them describing the move as a "betrayal of Georgia’s European path". The party subsequently joined the "Russian Law" protests. On 3 June, Ahali signed the

Georgian Charter The Georgian Charter ( Georgian: ''ქართული ქარტია'') is a plan introduced by President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili in response to the protests against foreign agents bill in 2023–2024. The goal of the charter is ...

initiated by President

Salome Zourabichvili Salomé Nino Zourabichvili (born 18March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician, former diplomat, and the fifth president of Georgia – the first female to be elected as president in the country's history. As a result of the constitutiona ...

in an attempt to consolidate the pro-Western opposition and set out their post-election manifesto. Ahali, along with five other opposition parties, additionally signed the "Declaration of Unity" paper to further consolidate the opposition ahead of the 2024 parliamentary election. Since formal coalitions were banned, Ahali created an informal coalition with two parties , Girchi – More Freedom and Droa announcing they would be fielding their candidates on Ahali’s party list. Ahali was subsequently renamed to Coalition for Change. Later on, the Republican Party and the Activists for the Future movement joined the coalition.

Ideology

Ahali is described as a

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

liberal party with a

foreign policy. Gvaramia has positioned Ahali as a "centrist party with a slight right-wing bias", with him railing against what he sees as a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

shift of UNM, the largest opposition party and also the party from which Ahali is a splinter off.

Seats in Municipal assemblies

Electoral performance

Parliamentary election

References

{{Georgian political parties 2024 establishments in Georgia (country) Political parties established in 2024 Pro-European political parties in Georgia (country)