Azerbaijan taekwondo fighters will compete at Chuncheon 2024 World Taekwondo Junior Championships, Azernews reports.
Day: September 26, 2024
The Strong Georgia coalition, led by Lelo for Georgia and uniting four political parties, has presented its parliamentary candidates for the October elections. The party list features prominent politicians and an unusually high number of candidates with academic credentials.
The frontrunner is Mamuka Khazaradze, a former businessman and founder of the Lelo for Georgia party. Next is Anna Dolidze, who heads the For People party, followed by another Lelo founder, Badri Japaridze, and Ana Natsvlishvili, a sitting MP from the same party. Fifth on the list is Levan Tsutskiridze, a civic activist who recently turned to politics and founded the Freedom Square movement.
“One thing must be said: we are probably first in the world in terms of the number of professors and PhDs in the party list,” Anna Dolidze joked as she addressed supporters on September 26.
Strong Georgia is positioning itself as a force equidistant from both current and former ruling parties. It brings together four opposition forces, including Lelo for Georgia, For People, led by Anna Dolidze, Citizens led by Aleko Elisashvili; and Freedom Square, led by Levan Tsutskiridze.
The list of top candidates is dominated by members of Lelo for Georgia. Four of the top ten and nine out of the top twenty candidates are women.
On September 25, Strong Georgia also presented Giorgi Margvelashvili, Georgia’s fourth president, as joining the coalition, but Margvelashvili doesn’t appear on the party’s list.
Below is the list of the top 26 MP candidates of the Strong Georgia coalition:
- Mamuka Khazaradze, Lelo for Georgia leader, former businessman
- Anna Dolidze, For People leader, lawyer
- Badri Japaridze, former MP, Lelo for Georgia leader
- Ana Natsvlishvili, incumbent MP, Lelo for Georgia
- Levan Tsutskiridze, Freedom Square leader, former head of the Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy
- Irakli Kupradze, General Secretary of Strong Georgia coalition, Lelo for Georgia
- Ketevan Turazashvili, incumbent MP, Citizens party
- Saba Buadze, Tbilisi city councillor, Lelo for Georgia
- Salome Samadashvili, incumbent MP, Lelo for Georgia
- David Rakviashvili, former secretary of the National Security Council
- Tamar Laliashvili, lawyer, former Supreme Court justice
- Grigol Gegelia, professor, Lelo for Georgia
- Levan Samushia, lawyer, Lelo for Georgia
- Pikria Chikhradze, former MP, Lelo for Georgia
- Giorgi Ushikishvili, folklore musician
- Vakhtang Surguladze, doctor, Tbilisi city councilor, Lelo for Georgia
- Lana Galdava, professor,
- Maka Nutsubidze, lawyer, professor
- Medea Metreveli, philologist, former head of National Book Center
- Aleko Elisashvili, leader of the Citizens Party
- Bakur Kvashilava, political scientist, GIPA dean
- Agil Mustafayev, lawyer, Lelo for Georgia
- Irakli Kobalia, researcher, Freedom Square co-founder
- Irakli Butsinashvili, activist
- Giorgi Rekhviashvili, lawyer, Citizens party
- Oto Parulava, leader of Lelo for Georgia youth organization
On October 26, Georgians will vote in the first-ever fully proportionally held elections. Parties must pass the 5% threshold to secure MP seats.
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On September 26, the Social Justice Center (SJC) reported that the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the decision of the Court of Appeals, which determined that holders of the status-neutral identity cards residing in the occupied territories of Georgia have rights equal to citizens of Georgia. The Court affirmed that it is a positive obligation of the state to ensure the integration of persons residing in the occupied territories, including persons with disabilities, and to provide access to essential services. “The court’s decision is precedent-setting and should be the basis for a fundamental review of existing policies and new legislative changes,” – SJC reports.
The “status-neutral identity documents” are special IDs issued to occupied territory residents who do not wish to identify themselves as Georgian citizens. It can serve as an international travel document for the countries that agreed to recognize them, and can be presented to the Georgian administration as a valid proof of identity.
The court case that led to the decision concerns an incident in 2021. A person with disabilities living in Ochamchire (Abkhazia), a holder of a status-neutral identity card, applied to the Social Services Agency for a disability pension but was denied due to the lack of Georgian citizenship.
The Supreme Court of Georgia, referring to the country’s Constitution, ruled that persons living in Abkhazia and holding neutral identity cards have the equal right to participate in legal relations and declared illegal the longstanding practice of the Social Service Agency of denying these persons adequate social assistance.
While the neutral ID card system provides access to some social services, such as health care and education, its holders have been excluded from essential protections, such as pensions and housing services. According to SJC, this limited support undermines the objectives of social security for people in the occupied regions, and the low take-up of the neutral ID card reflects the inadequacy of the associated benefits.
“In our opinion, this decision of the court changes the problematic policies and practices of the state, which provide weak social guarantees to persons with neutral IDs, and will contribute to increasing the availability of social assistance to persons living in the occupied territories in the future,” states SJC, adding: “We hope that based on the decision of the Supreme Court, the Parliament of Georgia and – within the limits of their competence – the Government of Georgia and other relevant executive authorities will consider offering broader social guarantees, payouts and programs for persons with neutral IDs. As a result, the protection of rights and social needs of people living in the occupied territories will be significantly improved.”
Georgia introduced the status-neutral identity cards in 2011, aiming to integrate the citizens living in occupied territories without them having to accept the Georgian national IDs. The uptake of the new cards has been relatively limited. Activists argue, one of the reasons was that they only provide limited access to social services. A vast majority of the residents of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia are known to hold Russian passports and receive their social benefits from that state. Recently, Russia decided to withhold some of the social payments.
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GD’s Longest-Serving Minister, Tsulukiani, Resigns. via @CivilGe https://t.co/OD1zbzIp9d
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) September 26, 2024
The Georgian government and ruling party officials responded with outrage and disdain to U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration’s decision to disinvite Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze from the traditional UNGA reception.
“The Biden Administration rescinded Prime Minister Kobakhidze’s invitation to its annual UNGA reception and declined to meet with the Georgian delegation due to increasing concerns about the Georgian government’s anti-democratic actions, disinformation, and negative rhetoric about the United States and the West,” the U.S. Embassy in Georgia stated. The interpretations from the ruling party tried to downplay the official reasoning and spin the decision as a gesture of partisan support to the opposition.
“It’s not serious. They sent the invitation three days ago, and then it was rescinded,” said PM Kobakhidze, who, by a twist of fate, had been disinvited from the event that coincidentally fell on his birthday, September 25. Placing the decision in the context of the GD campaign, which insists that the opposition is being driven from the West, PM Kobakhidze described Biden’s decision as a last-ditch “humanitarian act of support” to the Georgian opposition. Yet, he argued, since the opposition is failing miserably, “it will have no practical effect.”
First Vice Speaker of Parliament Gia Volski said the move was a “political demarche” by the U.S., which “has an interest in seeing the UNM return to power.” He described the decision as a “lifeline” for the “collective UNM,” GD shorthand to refer to all pro-Western opposition parties and critics.
Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili reiterated that the decision was “one of the manifestations of interference in the internal affairs of the country.” He added that the U.S. decision breached the “rules of hospitality,” which is the least the U.S. “could learn from the Georgian people.”
“First, the invitation was sent. Then they decided to use this action to help and nudge the radical opposition, which is […] gasping for breath,” Tbilisi Mayor, GD’s Secretary General Kakha Kaladze reacted.
Guram Macharashvili of People’s Power spun a conspiracy theory, saying “perhaps the US president did not know” about the matter, adding cryptically, “It seems that external powers are in action there, too.”
“They invited him on purpose, only to disinvite him later,” outraged majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze posted on social media.
Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili stuck with a more diplomatic tone: “We are very sad that such a decision has been made,” he said, expressing Georgia’s continued readiness for “open and honest” talks with its “strategic partner.”
PM Kobakhidze Disinvited from Biden’s UN Reception. via @CivilGe https://t.co/aJAiC8sxKt
— Notes from Georgia/South Caucasus (Hälbig, Ralph) (@SouthCaucasus) September 26, 2024