Georgian opposition party rejects parliamentary mandates after election loss

The Georgian opposition "Coalition for Change" party, which secured second place in the October 26 elections, has submitted a statement to Parliament.

 The party announced its refusal to accept parliamentary mandates, Caliber.Az reports, citing Georgian media.

"What we are doing today does not mean that we are renouncing our representation of people, our mandates, or the goal of achieving change. On the contrary, what we are doing today is the path to the complete delegitimization of this so-called parliament," one of the leaders of the party Nika Melia said while submitting the statement rejecting the mandates to the parliament's registry office.

Other members of the party who secured mandates in the elections also submitted similar statements to the parliament. 

Earlier, the "Coalition for Change" along with two other opposition parties – "Strong Georgia" and "Unity – National Movement" submitted requests to the Central Election Commission to annul their electoral lists. 

This means that the MPs who have rejected their mandates will not be replaced by the next candidates on the list. As for the fourth opposition party that passed into parliament, "Gakharia – For Georgia," it, like the other three, does not recognize the election results but has not announced any intention to reject its mandates. 

On November 17, opposition representatives organised a rally in Tbilisi to protest the results of the parliamentary elections. They planned to march to the country’s parliament building. The parliamentary elections in Georgia were held on October 26. Following the counting of ballots from 3,085 polling stations, the ruling "Georgian Dream — Democratic Georgia" party received over 54 per cent of the votes.

By Naila Huseynova