Former first lady Sandra Roelofs to run for Zugdidi Mayor
Former First Lady Sandra Roelofs will run as the opposition candidate in the Zugdidi mayoral elections, uniting 10 opposition parties, including the United National Movement.Photo: Volodymyr Petrov.
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Former first lady and wife of the third President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili Sandra Roelofs has announced plans to run in the by elections for Zugdidi mayor, in western Georgia.
She ran for Zugdidi MP in 2016. However, neither she nor the Georgian Dream ruling party candidate won in the first round of elections.
She refused to run in the second round, claiming that the first round was fabricated.
The elections in Zugdidi will be held on May 19.
The seat became vacant after the resignation of Lasha Gogia last year, who was later detained on charges of financial crimes.
One of the leaders of opposition party United National Movement (UNM), Georgia’s ex-First Lady Sandra Roelofs is refusing to participate in the second round of the Parliamentary Elections after claiming the official election results were falsified.
Former first lady of Georgia Sandra Roelofs claims her husband Mikheil Saakashvili, the country’s ex-president who is now Odessa Governor in Ukraine, "will celebrate victory with his people” after the October 8 Parliamentary Elections.
United National Movement (UNM), the opposition party that was ousted in the 2012 Parliamentary Elections, has named former first lady of Georgia, Sandra Roelofs, as its majoritarian candidate representing west Georgia’s Zugdidi municipality.
Today opposition political party United National Movement (UNM) revealed its election list, naming its top 10 candidates for the October Parliamentary Election race.
The Georgian Dream ruling party has named a candidate for Tbilisi Mtatsminda district MP and mayors in five cities - Zugdidi, Marneuli, Zestaponi, Tchiatura and Khulo.
The Central Commission of Georgia will spend 4,466,910 GEL on parliamentary and mayoral by-elections that will be held on May 19, 2019.
Georgia will hold municipal by-elections on May 19 to elect members of eight city councils (Sakrebulo) and five municipal mayors, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced today. Polls will open for parliamentary by-elections in the district of Mtatsminda, in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi on the same day as well.
Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that he will consult with foreign partners and international observers to decide on how many policemen will be sent to different polling stations around Georgia during the May 19 by elections.
Police have detained one person for violence after an incident in the yard of the Dadiani Palace in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia, where former first lady Sandra Roelofs was giving an interview to Odishi TV channel, amid the May 19 by elections.
Vice Parliament Speaker of Georgia Tamar Chugoshvili has urged dip corps in Georgia, local and foreign organisations to particularly monitor the by elections in Zugdidi, western Georgia, “as there are obvious signs that the opposition have plans to stir unrest there.”
Members of the Georgian Dream ruling party say that the United National Movement (UNM) and its allied parties may prevent people from voting in Zugdidi, in western Georgia, if they send hundreds of their activists there.
Two days are left before the May 19 by elections in Tbilisi and the regions, when the public will elect one MP, five mayors and members of eight city councils across the country.
Leader of the united opposition, uniting the United National Movement and allied parties, Grigol Vashadze says that 1,400 members of the opposition, 1,000 volunteers and up to 2,000 members of NGOs will be in Zugdidi, in western Georgia, during the May 19 by-elections.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has recently stated that she is “actively following” pre-election developments in Georgia and is concerned by the “extremely tense situation” in Zugdidi, the country’s west.