The leader of the party "For Georgia" Giorgi Gakharia proposed to the ruling party "Georgian Dream" and the opposition party "United National Movement" a negotiation on the creation of a coalition to agree on candidates for the city councils. The ruling party rejected this proposal, and the opposition announced that it was holding consultations with Gakharia’s party.
On October 2, elections of mayors and deputies of local assemblies were held in Georgia. The mayoral candidates did not receive the required number of votes in Tbilisi, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Poti, Batumi and 15 other Georgian cities, requiring a second round of elections in the given cities. Observers named the abuse of administrative resources and pressure on observers as the most frequent violations in the elections. On October 6, the Georgian opposition demanded a recount, claiming that 40% of the ballots in Tbilisi were falsified.
Giorgi Gakharia said that negotiations are underway between his party and the opposition to create a coalition in city councils throughout Georgia. He called on the Georgian Dream and the opposition United National Movement party to hold these negotiations openly.
“For our party there is an opportunity to have a decisive vote in the formation of both the Tbilisi municipality and the small municipalities of the country and the election of their chairmen. To this end, unfortunately, the “Georgian Dream,” as well as the “United National Movement,” [proposed and tried] to reach an agreement with our party within the framework of secret negotiations in order to form sakrebulo (local self-government bodies) people acceptable to them, which is done to create a one-party sakrebulo," Gakharia wrote in a message from “For Georgia” on October 7.
"We offer the Georgian Dream and the United National Movement in an open format, open trilateral negotiations that will strive for a balanced composition of Sakrebulo," Georgy Gakharia said on October 7.
Georgian Dream has not confirmed that talks on forming a coalition with the For Georgia party are taking place. According to Georgy Volsky, deputy speaker of parliament from the ruling party, the construction of the sakrubelo (city council) should not be based on inter-party negotiations, but rather on the requirements of the local community.
Tina Bokuchava, a member of the United National Movement, said on October 7 that the party supports Gakharia's plan to hold consultations on the formation of a coalition and is prepared to participate.
