Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi
Two weeks before the municipal elections the opposition parties started to complain about the unequal pre-election conditions. Unlike the governmental officials, the single mandate candidates of the opposition parties state that everything is ready in Kutaisi, like throughout Georgia, to rig the elections.
Representatives of every opposition party complain about the unequal conditions. The ruling party has more access to the local TV-Station, they cover the advertising banners, bribe the voters through various methods, unreasonable expenditure of the administrative resources, etc – the opposition parties focus mainly on these problems.
“30 employees of the Kutaisi City Hall are on holiday. All of them actively work for the election HQs of the National Movement. I do not think it is fair… Besides that, last year budget envisaged the expenses for the reconstruction of the roofs of residential buildings but it failed. However, they work on this program now. The single mandate candidates of the ruling party meet voters and distribute materials for the reconstruction of the residential buildings in exchange of votes. We do not have access to the local TV-Station either; we should pay ads. Instead, the pre-election campaign of the ruling party is actively highlighted by the local TV-Station,” said the members of the New Rights and single mandate candidate of the Alliance for Georgia Mamuka Mghvdeladze.
The members of the Movement for the Just Georgia also complain about the activities of the ruling party. Last week, they already filed complaint to the Central Election Commission. They complain about bribing the voters by 50 GEL in favor of the National Movement – the court will discuss their complaint.
The representatives of the Kutaisi office of the Republic Party also complain about unequal election conditions. The single mandate candidate of the Alliance for Georgia Vladimer Nakashidze clarified: “It is awkward to speak about equal conditions. We faced serious problems while renting the office for the party; I could not imagine it. We paid rent, had already agreed everything but suddenly the owner categorically refused me to rent the space. He said he had already rented it out.
Vladmier Nakashidze clarified that in fact the space is still unrented. In addition to that, the places for advertising banners where the single mandate candidate tried to post the banners of the Alliance for Georgia are occupied. “Representatives of both administrative department and architecture service office told me they did not know who the owner of the advertising business in Kutaisi was. They were sending me from one to another office… Nevertheless, the ruling party could resolve the problem very easily and posted their banners,” said Nakashidze.
The members of the local opposition parties state that at the approaching elections the situation gets tenser. The activities of the ruling party get more uncontrolled which will be responded by all means. They do not exclude the possibility of protest demonstrations before the elections.
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