Second round of the municipal elections in Khashuri municipality

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli 

Election results and turnout of the voters

On November 12, with the final results in the second round of the municipal elections in Khashuri municipality, the candidate of the Georgian Dream Giorgi Guraspashvili became the municipality governor. 10 224 persons voted for him that made up 61, 31% of total electorate in the municipality. The independent candidate Ramaz Nozadze received only 38, 69% of votes, 6 453 voters.

Only 16 973 out of the registered 48 963 voters in Khashuri election district participated in the second round of the polls, that made up 34, 66%. In the first round, there was 39, 34% turnout in the municipal elections.

Election process and observed violations

Monitors observed minor violations during the polling process. Khashuri DEC chairperson said in one of the polling stations a voter dropped the ballot paper in the mobile box. 

“Soon the mistake was eradicated. The mobile box was opened and then sealed back,” the DEC chairperson Imedo Latsabidze said.

Two complaints were submitted to the Khashuri DEC on the Election Day. One of them was filed by the observer of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, who was monitoring the elections in Tashiskari polling station # 32, where the final protocol was missing the signature of one of the PEC members. The second complaint was filed by the observer of the ISFED, who was monitoring the polling process in Khashuri PEC N1 – he requested disciplinary punishment for the person supervising the mobile box. During the discussion of the complaints in the Khashuri DEC, the Commission responded only to the complaint filed from Tashiskari PEC and did not pay the salary to the PEC member, whose signature was missing in the final protocol.

Electoral subjects about election results

“I shame Khashuri, which was sold to Guraspashvili,” the independent candidate Ramaz Nozadze said, who was defeated by the candidate of the ruling party and acting governor.

Guraspashvili thanked the voters in Khashuri for declaring the trust to him again.

“The elections finished with my victory, with the victory of the Georgian Dream. I want to thank each resident of Khashuri for their trust,” Guraspashvili said.

Incident in Khashuri

After the initial results were announced and victory of the GD candidate Guraspashvili became known, the representatives of his election office celebrated with victory with march and signals in the town. The incident happened close to Ramaz Nozadze’s election office. GD’s supporters threw celebration explosives to his office. The supporters of the independent candidate rushed out of the office and incident turned into physical controversy between rival parties. Representatives of the Georgian March were in Khashuri all day long, who also supported Ramaz Nozadze and they also joined the incident in the evening. The situation calmed down after the police arrived on the site.

MIA started probe into the physical controversy between the members of GD and Ramaz Nozadze’s election offices under Article 126 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.