The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party head Irakli Kobakhidze has stated that the GD won the so-called referendum announced by ‘the radical opposition’ with 66 per cent of seats in city councils (Sakrebulo) nationwide.
Kobakhidze said that the ruling party counts on increasing the figure to 68 per cent after the runoff.
The [opposition] United National Movement (UNM) party won 25 per cent of the seats in city councils while all other parties together received nine per cent of the seats. Such is the overall picture across the country,” Kobakhidze stated.
The figures presented by us once again show the impressive victory of the GD throughout the country,” he added.
The ruling party head said that GD will not cooperate with former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party, calling it ‘a traitor’s party.’
It's been two days since the election and he [Giorgi Gakharia] just can't be seen. He did not even thank the hundreds of thousands of people who supported his party,” Kobakhidze said.
Kobakhidze also noted that the largest opposition UNM party ‘is demolished as their leader Saakashvili is in prison.’
This provides an excellent opportunity for a qualitative recovery of the Georgian political spectrum by 2024,” stated Kobakhidze.
He said that ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili should serve his sentence completely, noting that he is in prison ‘deservedly.’
Based on the latest results provided by the Central Election Commission (CEC) the second round of municipal elections will be held in 20 constituencies nationwide with mayoral elections in Tbilisi and four other large cities of Georgia.
Municipal elections are held in Georgia per a mixed electoral system. Voters have to fill three ballot papers: the first ballot paper is for mayoral candidates (which are elected per a 50+1 system. The winner is the candidate who will receive at least 51 per cent of votes, otherwise a second round of elections will be held).
The second ballot paper is for majoritarian candidates in city assemblies (The winner must receive more than 40 per cent of votes in the first round of elections to win the race, otherwise a second round of elections will be held).
The third ballot paper is for parties - they will need at least 2,5 per cent of votes to receive seats in Tbilisi City Assembly and 3 per cent in other city assemblies across the country.
According to recent changes to the electoral code, 40 members in the 50-member Tbilisi City Assembly are elected per the proportional electoral system, while the remaining 10 per the majoritarian electoral system (previously the share stood at 25/25).