Wounded candidate wins elections in Kizilajlo
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, October 23
The Ruling Georgian Dream’s (GD) majoritarian candidate for local council membership in village of Kizilajlo, Jeyhun Chovdarov, who was wounded with three other GD supporters several days ago, has won the local race.
The information was released by the GD Mayoral candidate in Marneuli, TemurAbazov. He said that according to the preliminary results, Chovdarov won in Kizilajlo.
“As for his health condition, it is stable but still grave,” Abazov stressed.
The GD Mayoral candidate also spoke about his results, adding he will likely become Marneuli’s Mayor.
On October 19, a gunman opened fire at a local office of Georgia’s ruling party late at night, wounding four people, including Chovdarov.
There is no information regarding the motive of the assault. However, the Georgian Dream party denies that it was politically motivated.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation into the incident under Article 117 of the Criminal Code of Georgia which entails intentional infliction of grave injuries.
Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Mghebrishvili arrived in the region soon after the incident and was briefed on the details of the ongoing investigation and health condition of the wounded taken to hospital.
“I would like to call on everyone to abstain from making any statements regarding the case. We do not consider this incident as politically-motivated. We are working on all possible versions, so let us wait for the investigation results,” the minister said.
Georgian Health Minister Davit Sergeenko also arrived in Marneuli early on October 20 and visited the hospital where the injured are undergoing medical treatment. According to the minister, two people have light injuries, while the state of health of the remaining two is grave and moderately grave, respectively.
Marneuli is a small city and administrative center of Marneuli District that borders neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Kvemo Kartli region of southern Georgia. It is mainly populated by Georgian Azeris, who constitute one of the largest ethnic minority groups in the country.
