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Issue of creation-dismissal of fractions in the Gori local self-government

February 27, 2019
Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli

The ruling party created two more fractions in the Gori municipality assembly: Georgian Dream-Greens, and Georgian Dream-Social Democrats. Before that, the Georgian Dream had three fractions in the assembly: Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia, Georgian Dream-Entrepreneurs and Georgian Dream-Conservatives. The fraction chairpersons and the deputy chairs have high salaries: chairperson’s monthly salary is 2 000 GEL and the deputy receives 1 200 GEL per month. Annually, 38 400 GEL is spent from the local budget on the salaries of the chairperson and deputy of one fraction.

The ruling party now has five fractions in the Gori municipal assembly. One of the three fractions created by the opposition parties in the assembly “European Development” fell apart because the member of the assembly from the European Georgia Zviad Sabanadze left the political party. He quitted the political party and continued working in the assembly as an independent deputy. European Development had two members – one from the European Georgia and the second from the Development Movement.
 
Creation of another two fractions by the ruling party caused noise during the assembly session. The opposition members said the government cares about the interests of its party members more than public interests and creates fractions to pay high salaries to four more members of the assembly. 

“Additional funds from the local budget will be spent on the salaries of the fraction chairpersons and their deputies; I think it is not justified considering the social conditions of the population,” said Vasilisa Jabakhidze, assembly member from the United National Movement. 

Regardless the criticism of the opposition, the majority of the assembly members voted for the creation of the new fractions. The assembly chairman said the fractions will work in the Gori municipality in accordance to their profiles and will have initiatives in the assembly.

“The Greens will work on the improvement of our ecology, and social-democrats will pay more attention to social issues,” the assembly chairman Davit Razmadze said.

Nowadays, seven fractions continue working in the Gori municipal assembly. Five of them were created by the ruling party, the sixth was created by the UNM and the seventh fraction is the Patriots, where one member represents the Alliance of Patriots, second is independent deputy and the third is the single mandate deputy from the Georgian Dream. The latter temporarily gave up the party mandate to join the fraction. 

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