Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

In Shida Kartli, political parties closed down their offices in the region after the parliamentary elections. Nowadays, only two political parties have regional offices in Gori – Georgian Dream and the United National Movement.

Representatives of the political parties connect close-up of their offices in the region with the election results; second part of the political party representatives say due to meager financial resources they can open regional offices only during the pre-election period.

Medea Abashidze, member of the political party Paata Burtchuladze – State for people: “Many decisions made in our party are very unclear for me too. Among them was close-up of the offices. There is no political culture in the country and the political parties open regional offices only during pre-election period; it demonstrates many problems.”

Representatives of the New Political Center also closed the office in Gori. As the head of the local organization Kakha Toliashvili said they will have to continue activities without office for the next months. 

“Parliamentary elections finished, one year is left before the local self-governmental elections and unfortunately due to financial conditions of the political party we cannot keep the office,” Toliashvili said.

Although the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia overcome the barrier and entered the parliament, they closed the office in Gori. The representatives of the local organization said they closed the office because of small space in it. After the information about funding the political parties from the state budget was spread, head of the local organization of the Alliance of Patriots Mamuka Bაzandarashvili said they will resume the office in February 2017. 

“The space in the old office was very small and we closed it. In February we will resume our office, which will be more adequate for the parliamentary opposition political party,” Bazandarashvili said.

Similar situation is in the four other municipalities of the Shida Kartli region.