PM Garibashvili: opposition calling for postponing of elections because they’re destined for failure

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the opposition parties are ‘campaigning’ for the postponement of the October 2 municipal elections because they are ‘destined for failure’ in the race. 

• Georgia reports 5,021 new cases of coronavirus, 5,041 recoveries, 58 deaths

While presenting the ruling party’s majoritarian candidate in Mestia in the Svaneti region earlier today, Garibashvili noted that the opposition ‘has used the Public Defender’s office’ to push the government to declare a state of emergency which will automatically postpone the elections. 

• Georgian ombudswoman recommends postponement of municipal elections

Even when there was no coronavirus vaccine, no country postponed the elections. The only exception was an African dictator who did so. If the United National Movement (UNM) and Mikheil Saakashvili [Georgia’s third president, the founder of the UNM] are offering this, we should not be surprised, because it is their style,” PM Garibashvili said. 

Mentioning Saakashvili, PM Garibashvili reiterated that the previous, United National Movement government was provoked by Russia back in 2008 and they were unable to prevent the Russia-Georgia war. 

Only under the current government was there no war in the country and Georgia had the chance to develop in a stable and a peaceful way,” Garibashvili said. 

Joint opposition candidate for Tbilisi Mayor Nika Melia says that the government is engaged with making propagandist statements. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

The head of the UNM Nika Melia said that the postponement of the elections is not in the interests of any opposition party. 

It is my position that the coordinating council under the government of Georgia, which is composed of the country's health officials, should tell us what to do, and what their prognosis is. Instead of telling us how they are going to prevent 50-60 daily coronavirus deaths in the country, the government is engaged with shifting the public’s attention to other issues and is making propagandist statements that they will defeat the opposition,” Melia said. 

Earlier the Georgian Dream party head Irakli Kobakhidze and the GD MP Mamuka Mdinaradze stated that the elections ‘will not be postponed.’ 

Kobakhidze has described the Ombudsman's call to postpone the elections through declaring a state of emergency as ‘anomalous.’ 

Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has stated that Kobakhidze’s response meant ‘he could not grasp the situation in a proper way’ and urged the ruling party and the government to put public health and human lives above their political interests.