Ex-PM Gakharia's party member elected Tsalenjikha Municipal Assembly head
Salia was elected the head of assembly with a total of 14 votes. Photo: Tamar Zantaraia (RFE/RL)
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Former Georgian prime minister Giorgi Gakharia's For Georgia party member Korneli Salia has been elected the chairman of Tsalenjikha Municipal Assembly.
By electing Salia, Tsalenjikha has become the only municipality in Georgia where both the mayor (UNM's Giorgi Kharchilava) and the head of assembly are from opposition.
Salia was elected the head of assembly with a total of 14 votes by the opposition members, as the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) representatives refused to cast their ballots.
Following his election, Salia said that he is ready to cooperate both with the GD and the opposition parties.
GD Head Irakli Kobakhidze said Salia's election proved that For Georgia and the United National Movement (UNM) have formed a 'real alliance.'
The UNM and Gakharia's party are in coalition with each other, and it is no longer a secret to anyone. They are already in open talks, making corresponding decisions, Kobakhidze told the press.
In the 2021 municipal elections, the opposition won the majority in assemblies in seven out of 64 municipalities – Batumi, Zugdidi, Martvili, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha, Senaki and Rustavi.
GD garnered 47% of the vote in the proportional part of the race.
The opposition has won the majority in city assemblies in seven out of 64 municipalities – Batumi, Zugdidi, Martvili, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha, Rustavi and Senaki. GD head Irakli Kobakhidze stated that ‘the majority will be formed on the basis of negotiations with the members of the city councils,’ in municipalities where GD lost the majority, noting that ‘work on the issue has already started successfully.’
Former Georgian prime minister Giorgi Gakharia's For Georgia party member Shota Tsurtsumia has been elected the chairman of Chkhorotsku Municipal Assembly. In winning the spot, Tsurtsumia has become the first opposition member in the country to be elected an assembly head.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party says that it has used the opportunity ‘ensured by the law and the state constitution’ to approve the 2022 budget in five municipalities, in some of which its party members will no longer control the local city assembly following the recent October municipal elections.
City assemblies elected in the October 2021 municipal elections are holding their first sessions across the country today.
Parliamentary and city council by-elections will be held in the Georgian seaside town of Batumi and the south-eastern city of Rustavi in April, the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) announced on Tuesday.
Ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party MP Mamuka Mdinaradze has responded to a session involving the municipal assembly in the western Georgian town of Senaki on Wednesday, where members from opposition parties gave a go-ahead to the meeting without having a quorum of required members, by calling it “unbelievable”.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has filed a lawsuit against a decision made by the municipal assembly in the western Georgian city of Senaki earlier this month, alleging illegitimacy of the selection of an opposition member by the local council due to absence of quorum.