Saakashvili’s wife rejects seat in Georgian parliament

TBILISI – Sandra Roelofs, wife of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, rejected a deputy seat, which she obtained during October’s parliamentary elections via party lists.

On Nov. 7, Roelofs filed a request with the Georgian Central Election Commission to cancel her deputy mandate, the Georgian media said.

Roelofs was elected to the parliament of the new convocation as part of 27 deputies from the oppositional United National Movement (UNM) party. She was second on the party’s electoral list.
Earlier, Roelofs, who had run as a UNM candidate in the Zugdidi single-seat electoral district, refused to participate in the second round of the parliamentary elections, which took place on Oct. 30.

After the first round of the elections, the UNM leader Saakashvili proposed that the party refuse to participate in the second round of the elections and called on the already elected deputies to give up their seats and cease parliamentary activity. During the UNM’s political council these offers were rejected by the majority of votes.