The ruling Georgian Dream, lacking a majority of Rustavi municipality city council, dismissed the council chairman, Nodar Sherozia, who represents the Gakharia party, with the assistance of the National Movement faction former members.

The decision to dismiss Nodar Sherozia was made by secret vote among the members of the city council. Twenty-one deputies participated in the voting, with three ballots declared invalid. Eighteen deputies supported the removal of the city council chairman.

Based on the Self-Government Code, this decision required the vote of more than half of the total members of the city council. The Rustavi City Council has a total of 35 members, with only 16 deputies representing Georgian Dream. Following the 2021 local self-government elections, the opposition held the majority in the Rustavi City Council. However, the National Movement faction recently lost four members. Davit Kirkitadze, a member of parliament from the National Movement, stated that all four were expelled from the faction due to inappropriate behavior for the party.

Representatives of former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia's party accused Georgian Dream and the National Movement of cooperating.

"Georgian Dream and National Movement elected the city council chairman, who is a member of our team. They organized the impeachment together. This is a classic confirmation of what we have been saying for a long time, that "Dreams" and "Nazies" cooperate with each other," said Anna Buchukuri, a member of the Georgian Parliament from Gakharia's party.

The City Council chairmen and the heads of the commissions were removed from their positions today.

This process was preceded by a long confrontation between Rustavi Mayor Nino Latsabidze from Georgian Dream and representatives of the ruling party in City Council with the former leadership.

On April 17, 16 members of the Rustavi City Council from Georgian Dream appealed to the chairman of the City Council to convene an extraordinary meeting to discuss the removal of him, the deputies, and the chairmen of the commissions, and to elect new leaders. According to the document signed by the chief of staff of the City Council, Archil Dzamashvili, the chairman of the City Council was required to make a decision on convening an extraordinary session or provide a reasoned refusal within three days, which he did not do. Therefore, the head of the office of the Sakrebulo scheduled an extraordinary session for April 24.

Georgian News
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