Opposition Demands Suspension of Duty for Ruling Party MP After Election-Related Brawl
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, November 1
The unity of ten opposition parties with their joint presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze has demanded the suspension of duties for the Georgian Dream majoritarian MP in Ethnic Armenian-resided Akhalkalaki region Enzel Mkoyan, after the election-related brawl on 30 October which saw four supporters of the United National Movement opposition hospitalized.
Giorgi Vashadze from the united opposition claims that their representatives were attacked by 10 people at the UNM election office in Akhalkalaki and Mkoyan and his relatives were among the attackers.
“Georgian Dream's majoritarian MP Enzel Mkoyan was involved in this attack. He himself inflicted serious injuries to our representative. They were beating our representative in the street for 10-15 minutes. Then they, together with two other persons, abused our two representatives near the headquarters. These persons were armed. Mkoyan’s brother and son were involved in this attack. Ashot Karesyan, another representative of our union, was also abused. All four were taken to hospital. Three of them were discharged, but their condition worsened, and they were again hospitalized”, Vashadze said.
Head of the UNM Akhalkalaki election headquarter Ashot Raisian claimed early on October 30 that he and three others at the office were attacked and beaten by Akhalkali-Ninotsminda majoritarian MP Mkoyan and his brother.
Mkoyan in response speaks about provocations from Raisian and other UNM supporters in the pre-election period and on the election day.
He says that Raisian has had a dispute with the members of a district election commission several times and that he threatened the Georgian Dream activists that they would face serious problems when the UNM came back.
The MP said that on the election day, on 28 October, Raisian and his people tore down election posters of Zurabishvili and were using a bad language to the presidential candidate and the government members.
“On the next day, when our supporters heard about this they came to the UNM election headquarters. There was a little dispute which turned into a brawl. I live in 50 meters from the UNM election office and my brother went there to learn what was going on. It is a provocation which started several days ago and still continue,” Mkoyan told the Radio Liberty.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is investigating the case. Deputy Interior Minister Natia Mezvrishvili said that the four individuals, who received injuries, do not cooperate with law enforcers.
She says that “when they decide to cooperate” everything will be cleared out and everyone who committed a crime would be held accountable.
