UNM registers for by-elections after boycotting it
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, September 8
The opposition United National Movement (UNM) has registered for parliamentary and city assembly by-elections in the Central Election Commission after it made the statement that boycotted the elections scheduled in several constituencies around Georgia for October 31.
However, the participation will be different, the United National Movement members explained.
“We will not have candidates in the by-elections,” the UNM member Levan Tarkhnishvili said.
"We will not take part in the elections, which means we will not have candidates. We passed the registration in order to enjoy all the privileges, including free advertising time.
“We will use this for our goals – we believe that the country is in crisis and the current government has neither ability nor desire to drive the country out of it,” he said.
Tarkhnishvili states that the current government should resign in the context of the hard economic situation caused by the “Georgian Dream Government’s wrong policy.”
The Georgian Dream government dismisses the accusations and states that the devaluation of the national currency, that has exceeded 20% against dollar since November, 2014, is solely because of foreign factors.
The coalition states that the voters will support them in the by-elections and the up upcoming 2016 parliamentary race.
The parliamentary and a great deal of the non-parliamentary opposition parties jointly boycotted the by elections as the government postponed the major election reform to 2020.
However, several non-parliamentary parties, like the Alliance of Patriots, are participating in the by -elections.
Parliamentary by-elections will be held in Sagarejo and Martvili election districts, while the city assembly by-elections will be conducted in Dmanisi, Vani, Khobi and Sagarejo districts.
