Tbilisi City Assembly

Sakrebulos were established as the representative branch of local government not only in Tbilisi, but throughout Georgia, by reforms instituted in 1991 as the country declared independence from the Soviet Union.^[4] The first elections to sakrebulos was held on 31 March 1991. According to the 1991 legislation on self-governance, it was exercised in Tbilisi on two levels. Thus, there was Tbilisi sakrebulo to represent entire city, as well as rayon sakrebulos and each Tbilisi rayon (district) elected its own sakrebulo. Only these rayon sakrebulos were elected, while the Tbilisi Sakrebulo was composed of the chairmen and representatives of Tbilisi's rayon sakrebulos. Tbilisi had ten rayons and one daba (Tskneti), all of which had their rayon sakrebulos.^[5] The elections were held with the single transferable vote system, which resulted in the broad representation of the opposition. The ruling Round Table coalition secured the victory and a majority of seats. The turnout was high, although this was more likely because the elections were held in parallel to the 1991 Georgian independence referendum rather than due to increased interest in the local self-government.^[6]

The municipal councils ceased functioning following the 1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état. The local self-government was only re-established in 1998. The new law "On the Georgian Capital – Tbilisi" was passed by the Georgian parliament. The members of Tbilisi sakrebulo was elected through a fully proportional representation in 1998 and 2002.^[6][7] The Sakrebulo elections gained high importance because of their proximity to the parliamentary elections, with the parties seeing victory in the local elections as a bridgehead for the success in the parliamentary polls. The Tbilisi sakrebulo served both as a platform to challenge members of the very corrupt government of President Eduard Shevardnadze, as well as to pursue private mercantile interests too, with many of its members themselves being noticeably corrupt.^[8] The 1998 Tbilisi Sakrebulo elections resulted in the significant success for the opposition, with the ruling Union of Citizens, despite finishing on the 1st place, being unable to secure majority of seats and the opposition Labour Party member Lado Kakhadze being elected to the chairmanship of sakrebulo. However, both in Tbilisi sakrebulo and others, its oppositionist members soon discovered that they did not have enough administrative resources compared to the centrally-appoined executive bodies. Moreover, many of oppositionist deputies were co-opted by the ruling party, and the success of the opposition soon made a u-turn, especially in Tbilisi. Lado Kakhadze himself soon left the Labour Party and joined the Union of Citizens. Therefore, the relative success of the opposition in the local elections did not preclude the ruling party from achieving a decisive victory in the 1999 Georgian parliamentary election.^[9][10]

The members of the Sakrebulo are selected through a mixed electoral system. Of the 50 seats, 40 are filled through direct elections in local districts of the city. The remaining 10 members are chosen by political parties and are apportioned according to their support citywide. From 2021 assembly has 29 members from the ruling Georgian Dream, 13 from the United National Movement, 4 from For Georgia, 2 from Lelo, 1 from Girchi - More Freedom and 1 from For the People.^[11]

 

In accordance with the Code of Local Self-Government of the Organic Law of Georgia, the Sakrebulo exercises its powers to define the administrative-territorial organization of the municipality and its identity, organizational activities, determination of the personnel policy of the municipality, regulation and control of the activities of executive bodies; In the fields of municipal property management, social, amenities and household utilities, land use and natural resources use, municipal territory planning, transport and road economy, accounting, support for innovative development and informatization.^[12]

The authority of the Sakrebulo in the field of administrative-territorial organization of the municipality and defining its identity includes:

• Creation and abolition of administrative units in the municipality, change of their borders
• Establishment of local self-government symbols - coat of arms, flag and other symbols and make changes in them
• establish the rules for the introduction of honorary titles and awards of the self-governing unit and their award
• names of geographical objects, Establishing the rule of numbering of buildings in the settlements
• Making a decision on creating, joining or leaving a non-profit (non-commercial) legal entity together with other self-governing units.
• approval of the socio-economic development strategy of the self-governing unit
• approval of measures and programs to be taken to attract investments and support innovative development in the territory of the municipality^[12]

The most recent city council election was held on October 2, 2021, and the results were as follows:

Party		Lead candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–	Government
	Georgian Dream	Levan Zhorzholiani	193 486	40.40	12.75	29	10	Government
	National Movement	Sopio Japaridze	133 926	27.96	10.30	13	8	Opposition
	For Georgia	Levan Dolidze	42 596	8.89	New	4	New	Opposition
	Lelo	Badri Japaridze	17 373	3.63	New	2	New	Opposition
	Girchi - More Freedom	Tengiz Kirtadze	15 799	3.30	New	1	New	Opposition
	For the People	Aleksandre Ratishvili	12 337	2.58	New	1	New	Opposition
	Citizens	Fatman Barjadze	11 743	2.45	New	0	New	Extra-parliamentary
	Droa	Elene Khoshtaria	10 262	2.14	New	0	New	Extra-parliamentary
	Alliance of Patriots	Gocha Tevdoradze	7 915	1.65	3.97	0	2	Extra-parliamentary
	New Political Center - Girchi	Herman Szabo	7 695	1.61	New	0	New	Extra-parliamentary
	Labour Party	Lasha Chkhartishvili	6 293	1.31	2.59	0		Extra-parliamentary
	European Georgia	Giorgi Noniashvili	5 575	1.16	8.02	0	3	Extra-parliamentary
	Strategy Aghmashenebeli	Sergo Chikhladze	4 817	1.01	2.43	0		Extra-parliamentary
	Other		9 133	1.91				Extra-parliamentary
Total						50	±
Electorate/voter turnout
Source: [1]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
	Georgian Dream	205,994	53.15	39	12	Government
	National Movement	68,432	17.66	5	2	Opposition
	European Georgia	35,586	9.18	3	New	Opposition
	Alliance of Patriots	21,775	5.62	2		Opposition
	Labour Party	15,112	3.90	0		Extra-parliamentary
	Strategy Aghmashenebeli	13,350	3.44	0	New	Extra-parliamentary
	Democratic Movement	12,321	3.18	0	3	Extra-parliamentary
	Republican Party	6,229	1.61	0		Extra-parliamentary
Total		411,847	100.0	50
Source: [2] [3]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
	Georgian Dream	151,269	46.01	27	New	Government
	National Movement	85,858	26.11	7	32	Opposition
	United Opposition[d]	34 026	10.35	3		Opposition
	Alliance of Patriots	20,890	6.35	2	New	Opposition
	Independent			1		Opposition
Total		343,582	100.0	40
Source: [4]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
	National Movement	234,150	52.5	39	5	Government
	Alliance for Georgia[e]	80,166	17.97	5	4	Opposition
	Christian-Democratic Movement	53,748	12.05	3	New	Opposition
	United National Council[f]	36,850	8.26	2	1	Opposition
	Industry Will Save Georgia	27,791	6.23	1		Opposition
Source: [5]

Party		Votes	%	Seats			+/–	Government
				Proportional	Constituency	Total
	National Movement	204 261	66.53	9	25	34	20	Government
	RPG-CPG bloc	36 973	12.04	1	0	1	New	Opposition
	Labour Party	32 701	10.65	1	0	1	14	Opposition
	ISWG	18 671	6.08	1	0	1	3	Opposition
	The Way of Georgia	8 512	2.77	0	0	0	New	Extra-parliamentary
	PGNI	74	0.02	0	0	0	New	Extra-parliamentary
Total		307 015	100			37	±
Electorate/voter turnout		883 806	34.74
Source: [6], [7]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
	Labour Party	71 145	25.5	15	3	Government
	National Movement	66 256	23.75	14	New
	New Rights	31 695	11.36	7	New	Opposition
	Christian Conservative Party	20 284	7.27	4	New	Opposition
	Industry Will Save Georgia	19 898	7.13	4	New	Opposition
	Revival - XXI bloc	17 682	6.34	3	1	Opposition
	Unity	11 516	4.13	2	New	Opposition
	Socialist Party	7 934	2.58	0	9	Extra-parliamentary
	Union of Citizens	6 733	2.37	0	20	Extra-parliamentary
Total		283 855	100	49	±
Electorate/voter turnout		634 257	44.75
Source: [8]

• Local government in Georgia (country)

• Tbilisi Sakrebulo official web site
• Sakrebulo information on the official Tbilisi web site^{[permanent dead link‍]}