Local self-government elections in Kaspi municipality – incident in Samtavisi village precinct

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

6 candidates fought for the position of the Kaspi municipality mayor in the local self-government elections. According to the preliminary results of the CEC, mayoral candidate of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia Manuchar Merebashvili won the first round. He gained 64,76% of the voters (10 471 votes). UNM mayoral candidate Aleksandre Shakarashvili took the second place with 16, 31% of votes (2 638 votes). Mayoral candidate of the Alliance of Patriots Mamuka Bekauri received 10, 51% of votes (1700 votes). Dimitry Gorgadze of the European Georgia – 5.8% (938 votes); Natia Bakhtadze of the Republic Party – 2% (323 votes) and Nugzar Gagua of the Traditionalists – 0.61% (98 votes). 

“Altered results in the Samtavisi village polling station”

After counting the ballot papers of the majoritarian candidates in Samtavisi precinct # 28 in Kaspi municipality, initially the majoritarian candidate of the Democratic Movement Malkhaz Jabanashvili was winner with 162 votes. Candidate of the Georgian Dream Vladimer Uznadze ranked the second place with 159 votes. The PEC members re-counted the ballot papers: they added one annulled ballot paper to the candidate of the Georgian Dream but annulled 3 ballot papers on the account of Malkhaz Jabanashvili. In the final protocol the following results were recorded: Vladimer Uznadze – 160 votes and Jabanashvili – 159 votes. Considering that the results were changed and the candidate of the ruling party won the majoritarian elections. 

“Even the candidate of the ruling party congratulated Jabanashvili with the victory but half an hour later they changed the situation and the GD candidate won the elections with one vote. The PEC chairperson and the secretary must be punished for this fact,” said Otar Kosashvili, who was elected to the municipal council on behalf of the Labor Party. 

Kaspi DEC # 30 received all 10 complaints and the Commission satisfied only one of them; four complaints were rejected, five were not satisfied. The Commission rejected the complaint of the ISFED about the violations in the Samtavisi village precinct # 28. The DEC chairperson claims the complaint was not written in the precinct. ISFED did not have an observer in that particular polling station and they lodged the complaint directly to the DEC.

“The complaint was about procedural violations, whose terms were expired and considering that we left the complaint without consideration,” said Nona Noniashvili, Kaspi DEC Chairperson.

Members of the Kaspi municipal council

There will be 34 deputies in the Kaspi municipal council; 15 of them were elected from the proportional lists. Georgian Dream –Democratic Georgia gained 9 mandates in the council and the opposition political parties gained 6 mandates: European Georgia and Labor Party will have one deputy each; UNM and Alliance of Patriots will have two deputies each. As for the majoritarian districts, all 19 districts were won by the majoritarian candidates of the ruling party. All in all, GD will have 28 members in the 34-member municipal council.