Opposition leader Ugulava says his imprisonment mustn't affect demand for electoral reform
Leader of European Georgia opposition party and ex-Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava was sentenced to three years and two months in prison last month. Photo: RFE/RL.
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Leader of the European Georgia opposition party, former Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava who has been imprisoned for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL in state funds, says that he does not want the opposition’s demand for his release to create an obstacle in reaching an agreement [with the ruling party] on the 2020 election issue.
I do not want the issue of my release to become a barrier in receiving a maximally proportional electoral system for 2020 elections which is vitally needed for the country’s development,” Ugulava wrote in Matrosovi prison of Tbilisi where he is serving his sentence.
Ugulava said that the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili ‘took him and other political prisoners hostages’ to trade with the election issue and ‘prolong his power.’
Being in prison is my choice and is a part of the fight.If the 2020 elections are held per the proportional system, it will lead to the defeat of Ivanishvili’s regime. The unity of the opposition in the fight [to change the current government] is vital,” Ugulava said, adding ‘friends, do not worry about me and keep united!’
Georgian Dream officials have offered MEPs in the European parliament to create a special mission, composed of members of different political groups, to look into Ugulava's case.
The opposition says that ‘no deal with the ruling party’ is possible if Ugulava and ‘other political prisoners’ are not released.
The ruling party, which made new election offers for the 2020 parliamentary elections to the opposition, says that there are no political prisoners in the country and urged the European Parliament to send a fact-finding mission in Georgia to look into Ugulava’s case.
Controversy around the 2020 elections sparked at the end of last year when the parliament rejected the ruling party’s proposed election bill on an early transition to a fully proportional electoral system starting from 2020 instead of scheduled 2024.
Read more about the controversy here.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party is ready to accept one of the demands of the opposition for the 2020 elections which will make it impossible for a party to form a government if it receives less than 40 per cent of the vote. Parliament Chair Archil Talakvadze says that the ruling party is making ‘fair and pragmatic offers’ to the opposition to settle the row related to the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The Georgian opposition parties plan to nominate joint majoritarian candidates if the upcoming parliamentary elections later this year will be held per the existing electoral system, with 77 seats in the legislative body distributed via proportional voting and the remaining 73 via the majoritarian system.
Ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Secretary General, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze and the party’s Executive Secretary Irakli Kobakhidze have offered MEPs in the European parliament to create a special mission, composed of members of different political groups, to look into the embezzlement case involving opposition leader Gigi Ugulava.
Leader of European Georgia opposition party and ex-Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison by Georgian Supreme Court for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL from Tbilisi Municipal Development fund while in office. In February 2018 the Tbilisi Court of Appeals also sentenced Ugulava to one year and three months to prison in the case. However, the sentence was absorbed by another sentence Ugulava faced.
A Tbilisi City Court judge has annulled the pretrial measure for former Tbilisi Mayor, now leader of the European Georgia opposition party Gigi Ugulava, for an incident at Tbilisi International Airport in December 2019 as he was arrested earlier this year for another case for the embezzlement of 48 million GEL of state funds while in office.
Former leader of European Georgia opposition party and former Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava has stated that the government is ‘continuing political persecution’ against him, noting that a trial has been scheduled for May 13 for a case he was charged in back in 2019.