4 detained in Batumi after protesting parliament rejection of electoral bill
All 100 legislators of the Georgian Dream ruling party announced they were ready to support proportional voting system in the 2020 parliamentary elections. Photo: IPN.
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Four individuals protesting the decision of the Georgian parliament yesterday to reject a bill that would provide for fully proportional elections in the country were detained by the building of the Adjara regional government and later released by a judge in the Black Sea city of Batumi.
The participants of the rally were arrested because they were not allowing employees into the building.
The four individuals are Rezo Kharazi and Gia Khalvashi from the United National Movement, a member of Movement for a Country Service Alexandre Milorava and a member of NGO Alternativa, Beglar Putkaradze.
Later on November 15, the judge released all four, as they demanded lawyers and to prepare for a trial which has been scheduled for November 19.
The detainees say that they were only expressing their views without committing any violation.
Georgian opposition parties and young civic activists who participated in June’s anti-occupation rallies came together last night in front of the parliament building with one main demand – “proportional elections that will be held by a transitional government”.
UNM says a large-scale rally will be held on Sunday, November 17. Photo: Batumelebi.ge.
Shota Digmelashvili, one of the organizers of Thursday’s demonstration in front of the parliament of Georgia In Tbilisi, said that a transitional government must be established as a “committee of national consent” and include “everyone, minus Ivanishvili and his slaves”.
The United National Movement (UNM) is among the opposition parties which gathered at the office of the Labor Party on November 14.
In a statement released after the meeting, a UNM representative said a large-scale rally will be held on Sunday, November 17, hoping to “end Ivanishvili’s government in the shortest time” and give a start to democratic principles in Georgia.”
Although they didn’t attend the rally, Alliance of Patriots MPs also announced the start of protests.
Some demonstrators remain in front of the Parliament Building of Georgia in tents blocking central Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.
US Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of the initiators of the US Support Act to Georgia, has stated that that the failure [of the Georgian parliament] to deliver constitutional amendment [on Thursday] will be a gift for Russian President Vladimir Putin.“The failure will destroy the progress Georgia has made to reach complete independence and separation from an aggressive, encroaching neighbor in Russia,” Kinzinger wrote.
Giorgi Begadze is the ninth MP to leave the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling party after the recent rejection of the GD-proposed election bill. Begadze is the majoritarian MP of the ruling party in Rustavi, a town close to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Georgia have expressed their “deep regret” that the Georgian Dream ruling party proposed bill, which aimed to introduce a fully proportional election system starting in 2020, was rejected earlier today.
The US Embassy to Georgia has stated that they are disappointed that the Georgian Dream ruling party proposed bill on the move to a fully proportional electoral system from 2020 has been rejected earlier today.