Georgian ruling party MP accuses opposition of planning to politicise Tbilisi City Hall

A Georgian Dream lawmaker has accused the opposition of planning to fill Tbilisi’s municipal structures with party loyalists if they win the mayoral race in October.

Archil Gorduladze, chairman of parliament’s legal affairs committee, claimed that opposition groups allied with the United National Movement (UNM) were openly promising to dismiss “honest, state-minded” public servants and replace them with activists.

He said this approach had already been tested in the western town of Tsalenjikha after the 2021 local elections, when, according to him, employees who did not support the UNM were removed from their posts.

Gorduladze also pointed to recent comments by opposition leader Aleko Elisashvili, who suggested that if Irakli Kupradze became mayor, municipal services could go on strike. He argued this was evidence that the opposition intended to paralyse key sectors such as healthcare, sanitation and urban maintenance.

“This is further proof that the so-called collective UNM despises the Georgian people and seeks to create problems for them,”Gorduladze said, accusing the opposition of being a “party-driven agency” acting against the public interest.