Page 7 - bne IntelliNews Georgia country report November 2017

OSCE praises Georgia’s local election as free and fair
discredit one another and in their parties engaging in the same animosity. In the past year, UNM has sought to distance itself from Saakashvili after suffering a similarly humiliating defeat in the October 2016 parliamentary election. However, its efforts do not appear to have endeared it any more with the public.
According to Georgian law, candidates that secure more than 50% of the votes in local elections are declared outright winners. Meanwhile, those municipalities in which no candidate exceeds that threshold must organise a runoff race within 25 days of the first round. Such is the case with six relatively important municipalities. In two of them, UNM candidates were the main challengers for the post of mayor against Georgian Dream candidates.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded in a statement on October 22 that Georgia's local elections largely respected fundamental freedoms and that the candidates were able to compete freely.
However, both its report and that of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) noted the advantages enjoyed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which received over 90% of the donations during the campaign and the candidates of which dominated the airwaves. It therefore came as no surprise that the party won by a landslide at the ballot, its candidates securing mayor and council member posts in the largest cities in Georgia.
“We have observed an election process where contestants had the opportunity to campaign freely, and in which fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression were generally respected,” said Corien Jonker, head of the OSCE's long-term election observation mission to Georgia. “The predominant position of the ruling party is clear, and this affected different aspects of the elections. This predominance, however, comes with a responsibility to ensure that the opportunities of other contestants are not limited."
The OSCE praised the work of Georgia's central election commission (CEC) in the statement, adding that the election took place in a mostly calm environment.
Nevertheless, Democracy & Freedom Watch (DFWatch) reported on October 20 that a gunman opened fire at the office of the ruling party in the village of Kyzilajlo, some 35 km east of the capital Tbilisi. According to the interior ministry, an unknown person entered the Georgian Dream office around midnight and opened fire with an automatic rifle, wounding four persons.
Led by ex-football star Kakha Kaladze, who is now the new mayor of Tbilisi, Georgian Dream candidates won most of the mayoral seats in the country's six largest cities with an unequivocal 50% of more of the votes. Candidates that win over half of the votes are declared winners and the race does not go to second round anymore.
However, in Kutaisi, the second largest city in Georgia, the Georgian Dream candidate only secured 48.75% of the vote - compared to the 26.89% his closest opponent attained - so the city will schedule a run-off race. The same is the case with the municipalities of Borjomi, Kazbegi, Khashuri, Martvili and Ozurgeti, where ruling party candidates led the races, but failed to obtain over
7 GEORGIA Country Report November 2017 www.intellinews.com