Parliament suspends MP status of United National Movement opposition head Melia
Nika Melia became a chair of the United National Movement opposition party back in December 2020. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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The Georgian parliament has suspended the MP status of the head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Nika Melia with 79 votes earlier today, as Melia requested back in August 2021 to prepare for the October 2 municipal elections.
Melia’s move came on the heels of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party announcement to back out of the April 2021 EU mediated agreement which obliged the party to accept the holding of repeat parliamentary elections if it received less than 43 per cent of the vote in the October 2 municipal elections.
Melia and the UNM claimed anyway that Saturday’s elections were also a referendum and if the GD failed to receive the 43 per cent of the vote in the race, it would have to accept the holding of snap parliamentary elections.
The recent return of the third president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili also served the goal to support the UNM in the elections and prevent the GD from receiving the 43 per cent of the vote.
Georgian Dream is convincingly leading in municipal elections with 47.25 percent of votes after over 90 percent of preliminary votes counted. pic.twitter.com/pitw8vrfEA
— Georgian Dream (@GeorgianDream41) October 3, 2021
However, the GD received almost 47 per cent of the vote in the proportional part of the elections and won 44 of 64 mayoral constituencies.
Melia also came second in the Tbilisi mayoral race and he and incumbent Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze will compete in the run-off on October 30 as none of the candidates received at least 50% + 1 of the vote.
This is for the third time Melia’s MP status has been suspended. However, the previous two cases were connected with criminal charges and took place against the will of Melia.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.
The head of opposition United National Movement (UNM) party Nika Melia, who has been nominated for Tbilisi mayor by several opposition parties, has stated he is giving up his parliamentary mandate to prepare for the October 2 municipal elections.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has annulled its signatory status to the April 19 EU-mediated agreement which resolved a six-month political crisis in the country following the 2020 parliamentary elections and proposed large-scale electoral and judiciary reforms.Head of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze stated earlier today that the agreement initiated by the European Council President Charles Michel ‘had completed its mission’ and accused opposition parties of non-fulfilment of the agreement.
According to the final results of the first round in the race, the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party received 46.74 per cent of the vote, the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party received 30.68 per cent of the vote while ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party garnered 7.79 per cent of the vote.
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 Georgian parliament has suspended the MP status of Lelo party founder Mamuka Khazaradze and leader of the Girchi-More Freedom opposition party Zurab Japaridze earlier today with 79 votes in the 150-member state legislature, per their request.
Members of the opposition For Georgia and the United National Movement (UNM) parties claim that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party intends to adopt a municipal budget prior to the convening of new city councils (Sakrebulo), members of which were elected in October local self-government elections.