Ruling party rules out postponing municipal elections
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, August 26
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has called on healthcare officials and politicians to assess the epidemic-related risks involved in holding October 2 municipal elections, stating that “the issue of postponing the elections is not purely political, it is more an epidemiological and human rights issue”. She announced that the addressee of her appeal was the Prime Minister of the country, as he has the right to declare a state of emergency, which is the only way to postpone the elections.
The initiative of the Public Defender has been echoed by many opposition party leaders, some of them claiming that against the background of surging infections, postponement of the election should be considered. “We are losing up to 60 people a day, if professionals think that this slaughter can be stopped only by imposing a lockdown or postponing the elections, health officials should talk about it,” announced United National Movement (UNM) leader Nika Melia on Tuesday.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced yesterday that the opposition parties are campaigning’ for the postponement of elections as they are ‘destined for defeat’. Garibashvili stressed that elections would be held, noting that even when there was no coronavirus vaccine, no country delayed the elections. According to him, the opposition ‘has used the Public Defender’s office’ to push the government to postpone the elections’. PM promised that the government and political team would take responsibility for holding the elections in a transparent, free, fair, and Covid-safe environment.
As Shalva Papuashvili, Public Relations Secretary of the Georgian Dream said, demanding the postponement one month ahead of the elections directly means political capitulation. According to him, by supporting the idea of election postponement the United National Movement intends to prepare in advance an excuse to boycott the self-government elections, if defeated, blame their failure on the epidemic situation, and conduct a discrediting campaign against the government in the pre-election period. As he stated, considering the experience of last year’s elections, the CEC fully ensures that all security measures are observed on the election day. “Elections will be held, and they will be held safely,” said Papuashvili.
Giorgi Vashadze, the leader of Strategy Builder, addressed the Director of the National Center for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze and said that it was his responsibility to say if it is necessary to tighten regulations in the country and if the election process poses a risk to the deterioration of the epidemiological situation. According to him, against the background of people being afraid of a pandemic because the system is not being run properly, statements of the Georgian Dream are irresponsible.
Ex-Prime Minister, the leader of the For Georgia party Giorgi Gakharia echoed the recent situation saying that it is irresponsible to talk about postponing the elections. According to him, the government and the ruling party must manage the pandemic without damaging the economy and the political processes of the country. He believes that the government should ensure holding safe elections.
Yesterday, UNM leader Melia said that he never asked for election delay, however, he believes that leading epidemiologists should inform the public of the possible month-long scenario and assess the risks related to holding elections.
The local elections are scheduled for October 2. As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday, 30 ODIHR long-term observers will arrive in Georgia in the coming days. According to the ministry, the leadership of the mission will hold a press conference in the nearest days, where they will discuss the role of observers, after which the mission will officially start monitoring activities in Georgia.
