PM Condemns Election Violence in Kortskheli, Says ‘Perpetrators should be Punished’

PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who is chairman of the ruling GDDG party, condemned violent incident outside a polling station in the village of Kortskheli in the Samegrelo region during local by-election on Sunday.

Some leaders of the opposition UNM party and its activists were beaten by a group of GDDG supporters and members with athletic builds, who were mobilized outside the polling station in the village.

“What has happened in [by]-election in Samegrelo is unacceptable and such cases should not reoccur,” Kvirikashvili told journalists on May 23 in his first public comments on the issue, a day after the violent incident in Kortskheli.

“No matter how provocative our opponents might be, it is the obligation of the state to secure holding of the peaceful elections,” Kvirikashvili said.

“We should turn the page once and for all when elections were held in violence; fistfight should not decide who will be elected by voters. This incident should be condemned,” he said after attending a groundbreaking ceremony for construction of a planned technological institute in Tbilisi, funded by ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.

“We think that there will be a need for more mobilization of law enforcement agencies in order to prevent such incidents in the future. Of course this incident should be investigated and perpetrators punished. It will be a matter of dignity for the state to hold elections peacefully and to let our compatriots to cast ballot in peaceful environment,” the PM added.

The police reaction to the incident, as well as its failure to prevent it, was also criticized by rights groups. The Interior Ministry opened the investigation; no one has yet been charged or arrested. 

Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili said in a statement: “It is obvious that the police have failed to perform their duties in the village of Kortskheli.”  

GDDG party confirmed that its supporters and members were mobilized outside the polling station where the fistfight occurred, but some of the party leaders tried to put blame on UNM for, as they put it, provoking the incident.

GDDG’s general secretary Kakha Kaladze, who is the energy minister, accused UNM of “trying to intentionally make situation tense, staging provocations and trying to irritate people.”

In separate remarks on May 23, he told journalists that mobilization of supporters on the election day is a “normal” practice, but the violent incident itself is “unacceptable.”

The Public Defender said in his statement on May 23, that “delay in a strict reaction to this violence will affect on electoral environment and encourage such violence.”

“We call on the law enforcement agencies not to apply selective justice and to punish all the perpetrators to the full extent of the law,” he said.

“The state is obligated to launch prosecution against all those persons who were involved in, as well as organized and encouraged, this violent act. It is noteworthy that the opposition party and its political figures were target of this violence, which puts even more responsibility on the authorities to investigate and react on this case with high standards,” the Public Defender said.

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