About 10 members of the ruling Georgia Dream party have been injured and two of them are in critical condition after a confrontation with United National Movement members in the village of Nakhiduri of Bolnisi yesterday, says majoritarian candidate of the Georgian Dream for Bolnisi-Dmanisi-Tetritskaro-Tsalka Gogi Meshveliani.
According to my information, about 10 of our members are injured, naturally, the degree of damage varies, from light bruising to severe concussion. At the moment two of our members have been hospitalised and both of them have very severe head trauma and their condition is very serious. I unfortunately do not have information about injuries from our opponents, naturally there was some physical confrontation that could have led to physical injuries from them as well, but I have no information about that", said Meshveliani.
Meanwhile, one of the activists of the United National Movement party said that the representative of the party Arif Yusupov was attacked at the tea-house of Nakhiduri.
Majoritarian candidate of the UNM for Bolnisi-Dmanisi-Tetritskaro-Tsalka Kakha Okriashvili said that 'a gang of 50 people under the influence of drugs allegedly fired indiscriminately from the firearm', although no one was injured in the shooting.
One of the leaders of the National Movement and Gldani majoritarian candidate Nika Melia said that stones were thrown at him during the election meeting in Nakhiduri and believed this incident leads to Georgian Dream.
Chairwoman of the Central Election Commission Tamar Zhvania responds to the attempted obstructions of the election campaign by stating that it does not meet the ethical standards agreed upon by the political parties by signing the CEC-initiated Code of Conduct.
There are reports about certain cases of attempting to obstruct the election campaign. It also became known that the United National Movement candidate was thrown stones during a meeting with voters. This clearly does not fit into the ethical standards agreed upon by the political parties by signing the CEC-initiated Code of Conduct. It is important that the parties themselves first and foremost publicly condemn such actions and call on supporters to refrain from unethical behavior and violence", she said.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has started an investigation into the incident. The brother of Meshveliani, who was accused of taking part in the confrontation, has already been interrogated by the police.