Ruling party launches preparations for municipal elections
The ruling party says that the first meeting for municipal elections mainly concerned technical issues. Photo: Reuters/ David Mdzinarishvili.
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The Georgian Dream ruling party has launched preparations for municipal elections which will take place in the autumn of this year, party officials have stated today, after a meeting at the party headquarters in central Tbilisi.
The ruling party members say that the meeting mainly concerned technical issues and no candidates have been selected so far.
Meanwhile, the opposition has announced the launch of a ‘large-scale disobedience campaign and rallies’ if no agreement on repeat parliamentary elections and the release of opposition leader Nika Melia is made with the ruling party by the end of March.
We have suspended rallies until March 20 not to give a reason to the ruling party to hamper dialogue. If no agreement is reached with the ruling party, we will launch a large-scale disobedience campaign and rallies by the end of March,” leader of Strategy Agmashenebeli opposition party Giorgi Vashadze stated earlier today.
Five of eight Georgian opposition parties which have won seats in the 10th convocation of the Georgian parliament have been demanding repeat elections since the October 31, 2020 race.
Opposition says that rallies may resume by the end of the month. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
They have accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of falsifying the elections, refused to take up their mandates and took to the street in November 2020.
Foreign ambassadors have facilitated four rounds of talks since then between the ruling party and the opposition to help the parties end the tension. However, the talks ended without the result.
Opposition rallies resumed at the end of the last month, amid the coronavirus pandemic, after the arrest of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party head Nika Melia on February 23 for his refusal to pay bail.
Melia is charged with incitement to violence during the June protests in Tbilisi back in 2019.
Opposition parties are now demanding the release of Melia and the co-founder of the opposition-minded TV channel Mtavari Arkhi Giorgi Rurua and the repeat elections.
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili says that no repeat parliamentary elections will take place. Photo: Government of Georgia press office.
The dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition resumed during the recent visit of the European Council President Charles Michel to Georgia on March 1.
Michel has mandated Christian Danielsson to lead a EU-backed mediation effort in Georgia.
Danielsson will come to Georgia in the coming days.
The Georgian Dream officials have stated that Melia violated the law and that everyone is equal before the law.
The ruling party says that repeat elections will not take place because the elections ‘were held in the full line with democratic standards and that the international community has recognised the results of the elections.’
They repeated that if the opposition presents evidence that even one per cent of votes were fabricated, the ruling party will accept the conduct of repeat parliamentary elections.
Twenty-three former diplomats, ambassadors and representatives of various international organisations have released an open letter in which they said that the Georgian Dream government ‘must take the first step’ to solve the current tension in the country and this step should be the release of the new head of the United National Movement opposition party Nika Melia.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has stated that the opposition parties have continued ‘destructive actions and tried to block the functioning of the state legislature’ shortly after the meeting with the European Council president Charles Michel yesterday.
Seven individuals have been detained at the opposition’s anti-government rally at the Georgian parliament in central Tbilisi earlier today after they disobeyed police.The opposition parties which have been demanding repeat parliamentary elections since November 2020 took to the street again last week, following the arrest of the head of the United National Movement opposition party Nika Melia.
The Georgian opposition parties which took to the street following the recent arrest of the head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Nika Melia are now holding a protest in downtown Tbilisi on Rustaveli Avenue. They say that protests will continue at parliament, the administrative building of the government of Georgia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and at Tbilisi City Court until Melia and the co-founder of the opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi TV channel Giorgi Rurua are released, and repeat parliamentary elections scheduled.
The EU has urged for a ‘wide consensus’ and a dialogue between the Georgian Dream ruling party and the opposition to solve the current tension ahead of the 6th meeting of the EU-Georgia Association Council in Brussels on March 16, RFE/RL has cited the EU’s draft as saying for the meeting. Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili is scheduled to participate in the meeting. The document also urges Georgian political parties to refrain from sharp rhetoric.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has welcomed an upcoming visit of the EU mediator in the talks with the opposition to calm the current political tension in the country.
The EU mediator in the talks between the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition amid the current political tension, Christian Danielsson, has stated that the parties should themselves find a solution to the situation with the help of mediation. He stated that Georgia ‘is a valuable partner’ for the EU and that the EU is concerned by the ‘current political deadlock’ in the country.
Georgian Dream ruling party has officially named Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi, as its candidate for a second term in the position, ahead of the municipal elections set to be held in October.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has received the most donations of all political parties from May till today which amounted to 230,000 GEL (about $73,725/€62,090), the Georgian State Audit Office reports. Former Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s political party For Georgia, which was launched on May 29, 2021, has received 219,516 GEL (about $70,364/€59,259) in the last three months. Among the party’s donors are MPs and For Georgia members.