In Pshavi Elders Were Asked to Force People to Take an Oath on an Icon That They Would Vote for the National Movement

In Pshavi, elder people were asked to make people oath on an icon that they would vote for the National Party. One of the elders told to Information Centre of Mtskheta-Mtianeti. “Nobody has visited us since 2008, but they know that there are traditional festivals now and many people arrive in Pshavi. National Movement members also arrived there. They came to my house and asked what kind of problems were in the village and what we expected from the government to do. I was surprised that someone asked this kind of question because very few people live in this area. There are many problems, I said. They did not promise anything. They asked me to advise people to vote for the National Movement and to make them take an oath on an icon that they will vote for the National Movement. I won’t do this, this isn’t right,”-the elder said. According to him, the members of the ruling party applied to other elder people with the same request in Pshavi.

15 out of 23 villages in the backward Pshavi are abandoned. Vakisopeli is the most crowded village besides Shuafkho and only five families live there. However, many people go up to Pshavi on religious holidays.

It is noteworthy that various media sources have reported that the National Party has made people in Svaneti take an oath on the icon that they will vote for them. Recently, Muslims, who live in Dmanisi district, were asked to take an oath on a Koran that they will vote for them.

Information Centre of Mtskheta-Mtianeti