Telavi City Council’s Refusal to Opposition Members

Mikheil Mamalashvili, Kakheti 

Telavi city council refused deputies from “New Rights” and “National Movement” to form faction “Strong Telavi” within the council. According to Nika Vardoshvili, city council member from New Rights made illegal decision as it was instructed from Kakheti regional governor.  

“Henceforth Telavi city council can be called Shiolashvili’s notary bureau. According to the law, three deputies had a right to form a fraction, but they received instructions from the governor not to allow formation of oppositional fraction in the council and they obeyed him.” 

Kakheti regional governor Irakli Shiolashvili called “gossip child” to Nika Vardoshvili: “I can’t really debate with the gossip. I have nothing to do with that case”. 

Marekh Mgaloblishvili, head of the Telavi office of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, stated that problem created because of the ambiguous paragraph in the law on self-governance. The law does not clearly regulate fraction formation procedures, that finally resulted into the situation when some deputies managed to form fraction and others could not. Representatives of the opposition party are going to appeal the council decision at the court; GYLA will provide them with legal aid.