On October 28, deputy chair of the City Council Zurab Abashidze and head of the committee for healthcare and social issues Viktor Dolidze were resigned from their positions. They represented the opposition political party “Free Democrats” in the council.
38 members of the council voted for their resignation. Nobody voted against it because the council members from the opposition parties left the hall before the discussion started. The session started with quarrel.
Zurab Abashidze said the arguments for their resignation were completely ungrounded and unacceptable: “We think it is bolshevism and today’s bureau session proved that we still live in the Soviet Union,” Zurab Abashidze told the journalists.
Chair of the National Movement’s fraction Niko Khachirishvili said resignation of Abashidze and Dolidze was not politically motivated decision and it was not connected with their recent activities. “It is one of the ordinary working procedures when the City Council releases decisions on the resignation of various officials. We wanted to resign them earlier but it is not late either. We think, any service office of the City Council must implement its commitment properly and must be oriented on the resolution of the problems of Tbilisi residents. They could not properly implement their duties and both of them were resigned.”
“We promise it will finish within one year and Zurab Abashidze and I will remove the red flag from the top of the City Council,” said Dolidze.
He added that the reason of their resignation was “unimplemented commitments”: “We were told at the bureau session that Viktor Dolidze and I did not serve the public interests during the last one year. It can be evaluated as politically motivated prosecution.”
Mariam Khurtsidze