Georgian Dream councilors have boycotted Batumi City Council, preventing the council from appointing a head as well as voting to annul the annual city budget approved by the outgoing council last month.
On Thursday, councilors from Georgian Dream did not show up to an extraordinary council meeting, denying the council the quorum needed to vote for its chairperson for the second time.
Batumi, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, is among just 20 cities and municipalities where Georgian Dream did not win a majority in October’s local elections.
The opposition’s slated candidate to lead the council is Irakli Kupradze from the Lelo party.
Irakli Kupradze. Image: Shota Kincha/OC Media
Batumi city assembly is composed of 35 councillors — 16 members from Georgian Dream, 14 from the United National Movement (UNM), two members from For Georgia, one from Lelo, and one independent.
Irakli Tavdgiridze, For Georgia’s third original council member, declared himself independent after the elections, while the 35th councillor, Nugzar Putkaradze, died under disputed circumstances.
Tavdgiridze’s defection and Putkaradze’s death shifted the balance towards Georgian Dream, who were previously disadvantaged against the opposition with 16 members to 19. A crucial by-election for Putkaradze’s vacant seat will be held early next year.
Opposition groups complain about intimidation and undemocratic moves in Batumi
Georgian Dream’s boycott on 23 December was purportedly in protest at the opposition’s intent to annul the city budget that was adopted by the outgoing council on 26 November.
The council was also supposed to elect a new chairperson, after failing to elect one on 3 December, when the newly elected local councils of Georgia began.
On its opening day, the opposition councillors walked out after accusing the ruling party and authorities of pressuring UNM councillor, Nugzar Putkaradze, resulting in his death.
Putkaradze died on 18 November, after he claimed, according to the UNM, that he was being pressured and bribed into becoming a ‘neutral’ member of the assembly.
In late November, several Georgian cities, including Batumi, got their budgets drafted and approved by the outgoing councils, dominated by Georgian Dream, which triggered a wave of condemnations by the opposition.
Protests throughout 25–26 November by opposition groups over ‘illegitimate’ and ‘undemocratic’ moves by the Batumi City council resulted in four arrests, and UNM councillor Mirdat Kamadadze squirting a foul-smelling substance in the chamber during the sitting to disrupt the session.
After fleeing a not-so-promising academic career and a disastrous attempt at being a bisexual activist, Shota is now a grumpy staff writer covering Georgia-related topics at OC Media. He focuses on nationalism, far-right movements, gender, and queer issues, with an eye on Eastern and Central Europe.
The Georgian parliament has passed legal amendments removing the last vestiges of independence from Adjara’s public broadcaster, subsuming it to the national public broadcaster.
On Friday, MPs from the ruling party adopted amendments to Georgia’s Law on Broadcasting eliminating the Adjara public broadcaster’s advisory board.
Adjara TV, based in the autonomous republic of Adjara in Western Georgia, was once hailed as a bastion of unbiased journalism in the country.
The changes effectively
The head of the west Georgian region of Adjara and the Mayor of Batumi have reportedly met with a Chechen businessperson with close ties to Ramzan Kadyrov.
TV Formula reported that the chair of the government of Adjara, Tornike Rizhvadze and Batumi Mayor Archil Chikovani hosted Aslanbek Akhetkhanov at a private party at the Radisson Hotel in Batumi on 29 May.
Sources told Formula that the lounge at which the party took place was closed off all night and that hotel personnel working in the lo
Georgian Dream have won a byelection for the Batumi City Council. While the council is now formally hung, a ‘neutral’ candidate is suspected to be a ruling party ally.
Georgian Dream’s candidate Ramaz Jincharadze won a convincing victory in Saturday’s vote for a majoritarian council seat in Batumi, Georgia’s second-largest city and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.
The result will upset plans by opposition groups the United National Movement (UNM) and Lelo to deny the ruling
Police have reportedly arrested up to 10 supporters of ultra-right wing and pro-Russia group Alt Info after they attacked a crowd protesting their newly-opened office in the Georgian town of Kobuleti.
Local activists came to the new branch of the Conservative Movement party, Alt Info’s recently created political wing, on Tuesday evening after holding a march in support of Ukraine, in the port city’s downtown area.
Rally co-organiser Nika Romanadze, who was among those injured in the attack
