GDDG ruling party has accused UNM opposition party of intending to stir “confrontations” at campaign events ahead of the October 8 parliamentary elections – allegation dismissed by UNM as “absurd”, which was leveled by the ruling party in an attempt to distract public attention from actual problems.

Speaking on behalf of her party, GDDG’s MP candidate Tamar Chugoshvili said on September 5 without giving any specifics: “The United National Movement, which is definitely losing the upcoming elections and which has no public support, sees its only chance in stirring kind of turmoil.”

“As far as we know, they plan to provoke various types of confrontation during our [campaign] events, as well as to bring into the electoral campaign tensions and confrontation,” she said.

“It is very important for our country to hold elections in calm environment – not only the ruling party, but also other political forces are responsible for that… We also call on our supporters not to apply such methods and not to provoke any confrontation and if provocation is staged by others, not to yield to such provocations,” Chugoshvili said and also called on the election monitoring groups  to keep a close eye on “cases, which may obstruct holding of elections in calm environment.” 

Responding to allegation, UNM’s MP candidate Salome Samadashvili said: “It is very regrettable that the Georgian Dream, which has nothing else to tell the Georgian people and whose defeat in the elections is actually guaranteed, has decided to carry out pre-election processes with such absurd allegations. This accusation shows only one thing – Georgian Dream wants to obstruct with all the possible means UNM, which is the only political force capable of bringing country out of the crisis, in conducting election campaign.”

“Instead of speaking about actual problems, the authorities, which have organized [violent incident in the village of] Kortskheli [in May, 2016], are now speaking about invented threats,” UNM’s MP candidate, Sergi Kapanadze, said.

Ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has launched a campaign for GDDG party through his TV appearances, told journalists from the Guria region in Ozurgeti on September 5 that ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is now governor of Odessa region, encourages his supporters in the UNM party to stir disorders during the pre-election period.

“Saakashvili is inciting his supporters to mess situation up… There will be attempts to bring in chaos, but they [UNM] have no resources to do it,” Ivanishvili said.

Saakashvili responded through a post on his Facebook page: “Ivanishvili and his puppets started shouting that as if we [UNM] are preparing disorders. As a rule, he is blaming opponents for what he himself is planning. This photo shows well what kind of disorders we are preparing. Ivanishvili is losing elections” – the post is accompanied by a photo showing his wife, Sandra Roelofs, who is campaigning as UNM’s MP candidate, taking pictures with a group of young people.

Later on Monday afternoon, when Roelofs was holding a campaign meeting with supporters in the village of Jikhashkari in the Zugdidi municipality of Samegrelo region, a group of men approached the event reportedly shouting insults at Roelofs. The UNM accused local authorities of being behind the incident.