Candidate of Patriots’ Alliance is going to appeal by-election results
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, November 3
The candidate of the Alliance of Patriots party in Sagarejo, Irma Inashvili, does not recognize the results of the by-elections held on October 31 and is planning protest rallies to begin from November 8.
According to Inashvili, the election results were rigged and she is going to appeal the results first to the Central Election Commission and later to the court, demanding the abolishment of the Ujarma polling station.
Ujarma polling station is a special precinct, which was technically attached to a polling station located in the nearby village of Ujarma, where soldiers from the Mukhrovani base were able to vote.
Inashvili claims that the Defence Minister, Tina Kidasheli, created the above-mentioned polling station in order to help the candidate from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition. She says that only 24 soldiers out of 549 enlisted servicemen were locals from Sagarejo.
According to the preliminary results, the CEC announced on November 1 that in Sagarejo, GD's candidate from the Republican party, Tamar Khidasheli, received 7540 (49.50%) votes, while Irma Inashvili finished with 6, 981 (45.83%).
The winning candidate, Tamar Khidasheli stated that the voting process was transparent. She thanked her supporters and other candidates for their participation in the elections. She dismissed the notion that the results were rigged.
According to the November 1 preliminary results, in the Martvili by-elections GD's candidate Soso Danelia won the race and received 72,54% (9620 votes), while Eter Medzvelia from the Alliance of Patriots got 27.45% (3641 votes).
According to Medzvelia, Danelia did not win the race decently and the people were forced to vote for him.
“I do not recognize his victory, but I still wish Mr. Danelia luck,” Medzvelia stated.
On October 31, by-elections were also held in Dmanisi, Vani, Khobi and Sagarejo to fill vacant seats in the local councils of these municipalities.
The British Ambassador, Alessandra Hall Hall, assessed the elections positively. The Ambassador expressed hope that together with the international community, they will help all the affected parties and the problems will be resolved peacefully.
The winning candidates in Sagarejo and Martvili will keep their positions for one year, as the next parliamentary elections will be held in 2016.
