TBILISI, August 9 – Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has assigned numbers to political parties for the upcoming 4 October municipal elections. This year, 17 political groups registered to run. Five kept their existing numbers under rules allowing certain parties to retain them if they met deadlines and eligibility requirements. The rest drew new numbers … Read more
TBILISI, August 8 – With local elections coming up on October 4, Merab Sepashvili, a well-known Georgian singer, is reportedly being considered as a candidate for Tbilisi mayor, as a challenger to incumbent Kakha Kaladze. Sepashvili’s possible candidacy is being mentioned among the ranks of the opposition party Lelo. Party insiders say they’re still conducting … Read more
TBILISI, August 8 – While almost all opposition parties intend to boycott the upcoming local elections, the ruling Georgian Dream party Thursday kicked off its campaign in the capital with a full slate of candidates and a message of continued progress. At a launch event at its newly opened party headquarters in Krtsanisi, south in … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party is gearing up for the October local elections, with Tbilisi Mayor Kakhi Kaladze expected to run for a third term. Kaladze, a former professional footballer, confirmed this week that he will be the party’s candidate for mayor of the capital, although he has not formally declared his candidacy … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Two Georgian opposition parties, ‘For Georgia’ and ‘Lelo – Strong Georgia’, have decided to join forces ahead of the country’s October 4 local elections. The two parties signed what they called a memorandum of cooperation, aiming to agree on “a non-partisan neutral candidate for mayor” and align on either majoritarian or joint party-list runs. … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Mamuka Khazaradze, founder of the opposition party Lelo, calls for a unified opposition front in the upcoming local elections in the capital, Tbilisi, aiming to challenge the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. A recent opinion polls showed that the around two thirds of Tbilisians would support the opposition, but due to the internal disagreements … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–A new opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Social Studies and Analysis (ISSA) reveals that support for the opposition—particularly in the capital, Tbilisi—remains high. The nationwide poll reveals a deep dissatisfaction with the Georgian Dream (GD) government and support for opposition groups, heading toward local elections scheduled for October 4. The survey found … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–The artificial crisis is over, we won the election convincingly, and the ‘radical’ opposition, whose leader is ‘deservedly’ serving a sentence in jail, is ‘extremely weakened’, Georgian Dream chairman Irakli Kobakhidze stated as he summed up the political events of the last year. Writing on Facebook on Monday, Kobakhidze listed the ruling party’s four … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s local elections have so far earned mixed results, with both the ruling party and the opposition celebrating victory and highlighting their own success. Although the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) won a landslide victory in the proportional list and received 47% of the overall votes, it experienced major setbacks in several provincial cities. Despite … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s ruling party, GD, criticizes EU Ambassador Carl Hartzell for being too timid in his criticism of the leader of the opposition party UNM Nika Melia after a verbal confrontation outside the EU office in Tbilisi on Thursday. Melia approached the GD chairman Irakli Kobakhidze and the two engaged in a heated discussion about … Read more