Opposition against Mayor of Tbilisi
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, March 2
Opposition MPs of Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo) are going to file a lawsuit against Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania to the Prosecutor’s Office for preventing the MPs from attending the Tbilisi Government Session on March 1.
The MPs believe Narmania’s action constitute an abuse of power, as all Sakrebulo MPs are allowed to attend the sessions.
Six opposition MPs decided to attend the Tbilisi Government Session after the Mayor refused to answer questions about the judge-related scandal.
The MPs say that according to the City Council's December 23 2016 decree, the family of Appeals Court Judge Nazgaidze - in particular her brother - was given around 1 million GEL in total from the budget for the land that was devastated in the June 13 2015 flood in Tbilisi.
However, the MPs claim that at that time, the property was in the Bank of Georgia’s ownership, and also only the Nazgaidze family was given such compensation for land without any real estate on it.
After half an hour of waiting, City Hall security told the MPs they could attend the session.
However, the Sakrebulo members refused to enter and attend already started session.
“We are City Council MPs and they had no right not to let us in. The Mayor’s Office is involved in a million-Gel scandal and we wanted to discuss that issue,” an independent MP, Aleksandre Elisashvili stated.
A member of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition, Marina Datukishvili, says the guards allowed them to enter the building after calling the State Security Service (SSS).
“After keeping us waiting for half an hour, the City Hall guards allowed us to enter, but we refused. This was an action full of cynicism,” she said.
The Mayor’s Office released a statement in response to the Sakrebulo MPs.
“The action of City Council MPs was targeted to stage a political show before the media and society,” the statement reads.
Deputy Mayor Irakli Lekvinadze says the MPs were kept waiting because of the technical problems.
“The political show of the UNM and its supporter MPs is going on and this action is the part of the campaign, targeted to escalate situation in the country,” he said.
Lekvinadze also claimed that the Mayor did not refuse to answer questions about the judge-related scandal.
“The Mayor will attend the Sakrebulo when the proper number of MPs demand this. We participate only in discussions and not in political shows,” the Vice-Mayor said.
