Georgian Dream replaced its Marneuli candidate, who was the last to hear of it

Amiran Giorgadze, a member of the Georgian Dream party, began his campaign for the 21 October elections for local self-governing bodies in September as a mayoral candidate for the city of Marneuli. Giorgadze covered Marneuli in billboards. Party symbols adorn the billboards, where the candidate smiles under the party number – 41.

However, on 18 September, his pre-election plans changed suddenly. From a Radio Marneuli broadcast he found out that he is no longer the mayoral candidate in Marneuli from the ruling party, and that candidate Teymuraz Abassov had been put forward instead. But Giorgadze’s supporters appeared, and about 300 people came out to protest the decision of Georgian Dream in the centre of Marneuli. They demanded that the leaders of Georgian Dream provide official explanations. However, no one from the party appeared.

Participants of the protest, members of the self-governing bodies of Marneuli municipality and everyday citizens set off towards Tbilisi to the central office of Georgian Dream. A protest next to the Georgian Dream office was accompanied by an escort of numerous police and patrol cars. At the time there was a closed meeting taking place in the office. After a three-hour discussion, the majority of the participants refrained from commenting to the media. It was the leader of the parliamentary majority, Mamuka Mdinaradze, that stated that Teymuraz Abassov would run for mayoral post of Marneuli and that the former candidate, Amiran Giorgadze, would be included in the party list of candidates for the sakrebulo.

Amiran Giorgadze has avoided speaking to journalists. Why did the reigning party change its mayoral candidate in Marneuli? Members of the reigning party do not have a definite answer. In the Georgian Dream headquarters, all they say is that they agree with the decision of the party leaders. The same was said to Guria News by Amiran Giorgadze.

“I don’t know, I really don’t know anything. Nobody told me anything. For me, it is enough that this is the party’s decision.” Teymuraz Abassov is not well-known in Marneuli.

The population says that he is not a local. And Georgian Dream is not spreading official information about the new candidate for the position of mayor of Marneuli. According to different sources, Teymuraz Abassov is in Baku.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he worked in the Georgian embassy to Azerbaijan as an attache to the ministry, but is currently not working in any power structures. In the center of Marneuli and in the villages of the district, the billboards and posters of the former candidate, Amiran Giorgadze, remain.