After losing majority in the Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo), UNM party has also lost chairmanship posts of the Sakrebulo commissions.

Deputy Chairman of the Sakrebulo, Mamuka Akhvlediani of UNM, was also voted out at a session on July 19.

Chairman of Tbilisi Sakrebulo, Zaal Samadashvili, is the next most likely target of being voted out at the next session, scheduled for July 26.

UNM members of Sakrebulo boycotted the July 19 extraordinary session, citing that it was convened through procedural violations. They filed a lawsuit arguing that the session was held in violation of procedures, hence decisions taken at this session are not legitimate.

“We do not cling to our posts. We offered our opponents to hold consultations and vote out incumbents and vote in new ones in frames of regulations and law, but these negotiations have failed,” UNM’s Mamuka Akhvlediani, former deputy chairman of Tbilisi Sakrebulo, said.

Two other ceputy chairmen of Sakrebulo are from the Georgian Dream coalition; one is Giorgi Tkemaladze of Industrialist Party, which is part of GD coalition and another one is Jaba Samushia, who was elected in Sakrebulo as a member of the Christian-Democratic Movement, but switched to GD after the October 2012 parliamentary elections.

UNM now has 22 representatives in the 47-member Sakrebulo (there are total of 50 seats but three of them are currently vacant) after 16 of its members quit the party since the 2012 parliamentary elections.

Although most of the remaining members of Sakrebulo are united in factions, which are either part of GD coalition or otherwise affiliated with the GD, the latter still falls short of majority in the capital city’s Sakrebulo. Five councillors are independent members of the Sakrebulo, who are not affiliated to any of the faction.

Members of the Tbilisi Sakrebulo, other than those from UNM, are now holding consultations to distribute chairmanship seats of the Sakrebulo commissions, which became vacant after the July 19 session.