Erekle Kukhianidze Dismissed from Tbilisi City Council Majority

The Georgian Dream ruling team has announced the decision on the dismissal of Erekle Kukhianidze.

"The ruling party has addressed the case; Kukhianidze will quit the majority,” said Beka Davituliani, head of the ruling party faction in Tbilisi City Assembly.

However, Davituliani adds, the dismissal from the party does not mean the dismissal from the City Assembly seeing that such a decision, based on the law, should be made by Kukhianidze himself. 

The civic activists and the opposition have been holding rallies and demanding the dismissal of Kukhianidze from the Tbilisi City Assembly since the publication of the post on December 13, in which Kukhianidze accuses Vazha Gaprindashvili (along with his family) of calculated provocation and disregard of the whole state.

“This story has an evil-smelling vigor! I tell you directly - when you know that there is an occupier, watching to arrest and punish you, and nonetheless you proceed with your action…You also know that your country is devoid of ability to efficiently resist the occupier, and your family wilfully resists the state - either the whole family are idiots or provocateurs.. alas! " reads Kukhianidze’s post.

Kukhianidze, who has been acutely criticized by the opposition members and hundreds of social media users for his “appalling statement", made a public apology on December 16. He stated that he had a tense day when he wrote the post, and felt sorry for his words. 

By Elene Dzebisashvili