CEC: members of an election committee in Georgia beat up its chairperson

The Chairperson of district Election Committee of Akhalkalaki (Samtskhe-Djavaheti district of Georgia) was beaten up by members of the Committee. The reasons of the incident are currently being clarified, Central Election Committee of the country reported.

According to CEC, on September, 3, Chairperson Asmik Marangozyan was beaten up by members of the same committee Medea Neparidze, Nino Phakadze and Bezhan Gunava, representative of electoral bloc "Bidzina Ivanishvili - the Georgian Dream" in the building of the election committee.

"Central Election Committee of Georgia condemns this act of violence and calls to the participants of election process for self-control and mutual respect", IA "Novosti-Georgia" quotes a statement of CEC.

The reasons for the incident are not yet quite clear. Nevertheless, "United National Movement" has already accused the "Georgian Dream" of xenophobia.

Sergo Ratiani, one of the leaders of the Movement, reported on September, 5, at a briefing in the office of the ruling party that the reason of beating Marangozyan was that she "refused to answer the questions of the members of the coalition in Georgian".

Both parties blame each other. On September, 3, Marangozyan declared that she had uneasy relations with Bezhan Gunava: "Gunava is a representative of the "Georgian Dream" in our district. He comes only in order to carry out provocations and rebuke me. From the very beginning he refused to communicate with me because I did not speak Georgian and started communicating only with the secretaries because they were Georgians".

Bezhan Gunava denies the accusations. "This person repeatedly stated that I was in collusion with occupants. I always replied: If I am in collusion with occupants then why do you speak the occupants' language? Holding this office you must speak the state language. Is it xenophobia?", he asked.

Gunava states that in fact the Chairperson herself beat up her colleague Medea Neparidze, representative of the "Georgian Dream". According to the oppositionist, he has video and audio records confirming his statements in his disposal. He explains Asmik Marangozyan's inadequate behavior by the fact that members of the committee exposed her violations of the law.

A criminal case was initiated on the incident, "Echo of the Caucasus" reports.