More members of opposition are renouncing their MP mandates following the municipal run-offs of October 30 in which the ruling party candidates won the mayoral race in 19 of 20 contested municipalities, including in Tbilisi.
Opposition United National Movement member Levan Varshalomidze wrote on Facebook that he is refusing to have an MP mandate because he wants ‘a decisive fight for replacing the illegitimate government to start’.
Another UNM member Ani Tsitlidze has also announced that she can see no reasons to be in parliament after ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s appeal from the prison ad that she can continue the fight without a mandate.
"The Georgian Dream should remain alone with itself. I will talk more at the rallies”, Tsitlidze wrote on Facebook.
UNM member Nona Mamulashvili and leader of Lelo for Georgia Mamuka Khazaradze have also left the parliament, while leader of Girchi-More Freedom Zura Japaridze will also address the parliament to terminate his MP mandate.
Former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, has from prison urged opposition MPs to leave their mandates in protest, stating that the Georgian Dream (GD) government fabricated the results of recent municipal elections, Agenda.ge reported.
Claiming that the results of the run-offs are falsified, the Georgian opposition leaders have announced rallies in the cities of Batumi, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi, and a large-scale demonstration in Tbilisi on November 6.
Ruling party MP Mamuka Mdinaradze said it is the opposition’s right to terminate their mandates. However, another ruling party MP Shalva Papuashvili considers that if the UNM members will leave the parliament, they will distance them from the democracy.
Based on the final results of the local self-government election run-offs held on October 30, the opposition has won the majority in six out of 64 municipalities – Batumi, Zugdidi, Martvili, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha and Rustavi. However, the ruling party mayoral candidates have won in all self-governing cities and municipalities except for Tsalenjikha, where the UNM party candidate, Giorgi Kharchilava, won with 51.11%.
