UNM head: opposition winning the ‘referendum,’ we need to boost turnout

Head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Nika Melia, who is running for Tbilisi mayor, has stated that the opposition is winning the municipal elections and urged voters to actively participate in the race to ‘boost the difference’ in the votes received by the ruling party and the opposition. 

• Elections 2021: polling stations open, Georgia holding municipal elections today

He claimed that victory in the elections is ‘crucial’ because the race is ‘also a referendum.’ 

Melia said that the opposition enjoys higher support in big cities ‘as more media outlets are present there and the ruling party has fewer chances to intimate and bribe voters.’ 

The ruling party, however, says that it is winning the elections and that voters will give a ‘due response’ to the ‘destructive United National Movement’ and ‘its [recently] arrested leader, former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili.’ 

• The April 2021 EU-mediated agreement between the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and the majority of opposition parties proposed the holding of repeat parliamentary elections if the ruling Georgian Dream party received less than 43 per cent of votes in the October 2 municipal elections. 
• However, ahead of the elections the ruling party withdrew from the agreement ‘because of the refusal of the main opposition party, the UNM, to join.’ 
• The UNM did not join the agreement because it disliked a stipulation on the amnesty of convicts of June 2019 protests in Tbilisi.
• The opposition parties are still hopeful that the ruling party may accept the holding of repeat parliamentary elections if it receives less than 43 per cent of votes in the upcoming elections..
• However, the Georgian Dream says that ‘no repeat elections will take place.’