# Tbilisi City Assembly

The Tbilisi Sakrebulo (Georgian: თბილისის საკრებულო, romanized: tbilisis sak'rebulo), is a representative body in the city government of Tbilisi, Georgia. It is also known in English as the Tbilisi City Council or Tbilisi Assembly.

## History

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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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-appointed 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.

## Composition

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.

## Powers

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.
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

## Election results

The most recent city council election was held on October 2, 2021, and the results were as follows:
| Party | 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 | Total | Total | | | | 50 | ± | |
| Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | | | | | | |
| Source: |||||||||

### Previous election results
#### 2017

| Party | 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: |||||||

#### 2014

| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
| | Georgian Dream | 151,269 | 46.01 | 27 | New | Government |
| | National Movement | 85,858 | 26.11 | 7 | 32 | Opposition |
| | United Opposition | 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: |||||||

#### 2010

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

#### 2006

| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | Seats | Seats | +/– | Government | Government |
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Proportional | Constituency | Total | +/– | Government | Government |
| | 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 | Total | 307 015 | 100 | | | 37 | ± | |
| Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | 883 806 | 34.74 | | | | | |
| Source: , |||||||||

#### 2002

| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
| | Labour Party | 71 145 | 25.5 | 15 | 3 | Government |
| | National Movement | 66 256 | 23.75 | 14 | New | Government |
| | 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 | Total | 283 855 | 100 | 49 | ± | |
| Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | 634 257 | 44.75 | | | |
| Source: ||||||||

#### 1998

| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
| | Union of Citizens | 77 286 | 29.94 | 20 | New | Government |
| | Labour Party | 46 206 | 17.90 | 12 | New | Government |
| | Socialist Party | 32 685 | 12.66 | 9 | New | Opposition |
| | Party of the People | 19 100 | 7.40 | 4 | New | Opposition |
| | Democratic Union for Revival | 18 116 | 7.02 | 4 | New | Opposition |
| | National Democratic Party | 17152 | 6.65 | 3 | New | Opposition |
| | Union of Georgian Traditionalists | 15 710 | 6.09 | 3 | New | Opposition |
| | Athletic Georgia | 5 238 | 2.03 | 0 | New | Extra-parliamentary |
| | Merab Kostava Society | 4 150 | 1.61 | 0 | New | Extra-parliamentary |
| Total | Total | 258 095 | 100 | 55 | ± | |
| Electorate/voter turnout | Electorate/voter turnout | 664 273 | 38.85 | | | |