GDDG Wins Most Mayoral Runoff Races
The ruling Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party won five out of six mayoral runoff elections across the country, according to the preliminary results of November 12 polls released by the Central Election Commission.
GDDG candidates obtained decisive victories in Borjomi, Kazbegi, Khashuri, Kutaisi and Martvili constituencies, but narrowly lost to an independent candidate in Ozurgeti Municipality.
In Borjomi, GDDG’s Levan Lipartia defeated Zaza Chachanidze of the Alliance of Patriots with 55.22% to 44.78%, while in Kazbegi the ruling party’s Alexander Zagashvili won the contest against Sandro Kamarauli of the Democratic Movement – Free Georgia with 68.65% to 31.35%.
In Khashuri, GDDG’s mayoral candidate, Giorgi Guraspashvili, won the race with 61.31% of votes. Independent candidate Ramaz Nozadze finished with 38.69% of votes.
The vote was nominal in Kutaisi and Martvili, where the ruling party candidates faced contenders from the opposition United National Movement party, which withdrew from the contest and did not run electoral campaigns. There candidates’ names, however, still remained on ballot papers.
As a result, GDDG’s mayoral candidates in the two constituencies – Giorgi Chigvaria in Kutaisi (87.55%) and Alexander Grigalava in Martvili (93.04%) – won decisively against UNM’s Grigol Vashadze (12.45%) and Mamuka Danelia (6.96%), respectively.
The only district where GDDG candidate was defeated was Ozurgeti, where the winner – independent candidate Konstantine Shareshenidze had a slight edge over GDDG’s Belgar Sioridze with 50.11% to 49.89%.
According to CEC, the overall turnout in runoff elections was 33.24% (109 119 voters). Highest turnout was reported in Ozurgeti with 56.7%, followed by Kazbegi, Borjomi, Martvili and Khashuri with 52.95%, 52.89%, 38.49% and 34.66%, respectively. Only 17.98% of voters cast their votes in Kutaisi, making it the lowest turnout in the runoff elections.
