There will be no competition in the second round in Gori

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

According to the preliminary results provided by the CEC, results from 20 precincts in the Gori Single-Mandate District #41 were counted. According to the results the candidate from the Georgian Dream, Ioseb Makrakhidze gained 33.2%, the UNM’s candidate Aleksi Goglidze – 16.3%, Free Democrats’ candidate, Irakli Alasania – 19.41%, independent candidate Irakli Okruashvili – 17.28%. Ioseb Makrakhidze from the ruling party and Irakli Alasania from the Free Democrats will go into the second round. However, Irakli Alasania decided to leave politics. The reason of his decision was failure of the Free Democrats to overcome the barrier.  

“I would like to warmly thank to the citizens, who supported me, especially voters from Gori, but, I decided to terminate my campaign, because in order to fulfill our promises to the voters, we need a team in the Parliament. Unfortunately, we did not receive that chance. As I do not see how I can influence developments in the country, I decided to leave politics for a while”, - Irakli Alasania declared. 

Even if Irakli Alasania does not participate in the second round of the elections, his name will be included in the ballot papers – Aleksi Merebashvili, the lawyer of Human Rights Center Gori Office, stated.

  

“The candidate who took the 3rd place cannot replace him; the ballot must be among two candidates, who took the first two places - Alasania-Makrakhidze. The name of Irakli Alasania will be included in the ballots, but if somebody will mark him, the ballots will become invalid and only Makrakhidze’s votes will be counted”, - Merebashvili explained. 

The CEC responded to Alasania’s decision. 

“The first two winner candidates participate in the second round of elections. You know that there is 50% baseline and two candidates participate in the second round. If any candidate does not participate in the elections, according to the legislation his/her data will be anyway included in the ballot papers”, - Ana Mikeladze, the press-speaker of the CEC, declared.