On December 25, the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) convened the 8th regular session of its National Assembly. Within the framework of the session, elections were held for the Association’s President, members of the Executive Council, and members of the Audit Commission, and the new charter of the Association was also approved.
The large-scale event was attended by representatives of Georgia’s central and local authorities, as well as partner local and international organizations.
The Assembly, which was opened by NALAG’s Executive Director Nino Rukhadze, featured a welcoming address to the attendees from the Association’s President, Mayor of Tbilisi Municipality Kakha Kaladze.
In his report, Kakha Kaladze presented an account of NALAG’s activities and focused attention on the Association’s role in the process of developing local democracy.
The delegates were also addressed by Irakli Kadagishvili, Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on Regional Policy and Self-Governance, and Kakhaber Guledani, Minister of Regional Development of Georgia.
Following the conclusion of the welcoming session, the meeting participants elected Zurab Abashidze, Chairman of the Tbilisi Municipal Assembly, as the session’s Chairperson, and Nino Vardosanidze, Chairman of the Legal Issues and Human Rights Commission of the Capital’s Assembly, as Secretary.
Discussions on statutory matters began with the election of NALAG’s President. Zurab Abashidze nominated the incumbent President Kakha Kaladze for a third term as President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia, and his candidacy received support from the majority of delegates through open voting.
The composition of NALAG’s Executive Council was also approved by a majority vote. Notably, Executive Council members are elected on a regional principle: two members from each region and from the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, and three members from Tbilisi (23 in total). The composition of delegates is formed proportionally based on the results of local self-government elections, which fully takes into account the opposition’s quota.
The delegates represented at the National Assembly also participated in the election of the Association’s Audit Commission, which was staffed with three main and three alternate members.
The delegates also supported the final item on the agenda — the approval of NALAG’s new charter.
At the Assembly, held at the Biltmore Hotel, video addresses from leaders of the Association’s partner organizations were broadcast. Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG); Fabrizio Rossi, Secretary General of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR); Kelmend Zajazi, Executive Director of the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS); and Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) congratulated the session participants on the elections and expressed hope for close cooperation in the future. They emphasized NALAG’s important role in developing local democracy and decentralization and expressed the support of international networks for Georgia’s local authorities and Georgian colleagues.
The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia unites all 64 municipalities of Georgia and represents their interests both at the national and international levels. The Association works in the directions of developing local self-government institutions, supporting the decentralization process, and strengthening cooperation between municipalities.
The Association serves as the secretariat of the Georgian delegation to the Congress of the Council of Europe; NALAG is also a member of regional and global networks of municipal associations and promotes the representation of Georgia’s municipalities on international platforms and the development of decentralized international cooperation.