Georgia's ruling party wins major cities' mayor races
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgia´s national elections commission says candidates from the ruling party have won the mayoral races in the country´s five largest cities, but the opposition is claiming fraud.
Near-complete results announced Sunday by the Central Elections Commission showed the Georgian Dream party winning the vote in the capital Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Poti and Batumi.
The Saturday runoff elections were held after no candidate won an absolute majority in the cities in the first round of nationwide municipal elections on Oct. 2.
Nika Melia, head of the main opposition party United National Movement and Tbilisi mayoral candidate, claimed that "the victories gained by the opposition in many municipalities were taken away ... like they never happened."
The elections were shadowed by the arrest on the day before the first round of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the founder of the UNM.
Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 and was convicted in absentia of abuse of power and sentenced to six years. He returned to Georgia from his home in Ukraine, hoping to boost the opposition in the first round of voting, but was arrested within a day
FILE - Nika Melia, head of the United National Movement, speaks to Georgian opposition supporters of former president Mikheil Saakashvili during a rally in his support in front of the prison where former president is being held, in Rustavi, about 20 km from the capital Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. Georgia's ruling party and the main opposition party are both claiming victory in elections for mayors of the country's largest cities. Nika Melia, the UNM candidate in Tbilisi, claimed the opposition was winning in all major cities, while Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili of Georgian Dream was quoted by the agenda.ge news portal as saying "according to the preliminary results, we won in all municipalities." (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)
