Following the October 2025 local self-government elections, the Georgian Dream party secured a majority in all municipal councils across Georgia. All of the mayors are also representatives of the ruling party. The dominance of a single party at the local level indicates a deep crisis of democracy and the breakdown of control mechanisms.

Transparency International Georgia published annual reports on the performance of Batumi, Poti, Zugdidi, Kutaisi and Akhaltsikhe municipal councils. In September-October of this year, we provided the public with a summary review of the performance of all five municipal councils from the 2021 convocation.

Although in the 2021 elections, an opposition mayor won in one municipality (Tsalenjikha), members of various opposition parties formed a majority in the city councils of several other municipalities (Zugdidi, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha, Rustavi), and Georgian Dream had a minimal advantage in some city councils (Batumi, Martvili, Senaki), this did not prove enough for the local self-government bodies to protect the vital interests of the population and develop the political process on the ground. As a result of this year's elections, a completely non-pluralistic environment was formed in municipal governance.

• According to Transparency International Georgia, city councils exercised weak oversight over mayors and legal entities established by the municipality. They only formally controlled the activities of officials or individual agencies accountable to them. This was primarily due to the lack of political will within the Georgian Dream to control the executive branches of municipalities. The Zugdidi Municipality City Council was an exception; compared to other councils, it performed its oversight function better. This was largely because the Zugdidi City Council majority was formed by opposition parties, and the Georgian Dream was in the minority. However, Zugdidi mayor represented the ruling party.
• The amendments to the Local Self-Government Code, which were initiated by the ruling party, have significantly diminished the role of city councils. The most problematic amendments were introduced in December 2022. These amendments stipulate that if the budget is not approved within three months of the start of the fiscal year, the city council’s powers will be terminated early. Under the previous version of the code, the powers of both the mayor and the city council would have been terminated early. Georgian Dream saw the need for this amendment after failing to win a solid majority in several municipalities in the 2021 elections. If these city councils had failed to adopt municipal budgets, re-elections of mayors would have had to be held alongside the city councils. The ruling party forced the old city councils of the 2017 convocation to adopt budgets for these municipalities in an unprecedentedly accelerated manner. Then-Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili encouraged this process, stating that Georgian Dream was in the central government and that the opposition “could not take a step” at the local level without them.
• None of the city councils whose performance was studied by Transparency International Georgia revealed facts of conflicts of interest, incompatibility of positions, or violations of city council rules of procedure and ethical norms. This approach is unconvincing because: (1) the facts of alleged corruption related to Batumi City Council and City Hall officials have been included in various reports of Transparency International Georgia several times; (2) members of the Akhaltsikhe City Council of the 2021 convocation, their family members and relatives, received procurements worth up to GEL 25 million from Akhaltsikhe City Hall and its legal entities within four years.
• The government lacks the political will to implement comprehensive decentralization. Local self-government bodies are also less interested in expanding their own powers and capabilities. Consequently, these bodies depend on the central government, thereby strengthening the party's centralized power. When Batumi Mayor Archil Chikovani and Kutaisi Mayor Ioseb Khakhaleishvili resigned, their respective city councils did not convene an extraordinary session nor request explanations from the mayors regarding the reasons for their resignations.
• All five municipal city councils of the 2021 convocation, which were studied by Transparency International Georgia, abolished their Gender Equality Councils. They did not prepare a single statement, document, or other information on gender equality violations, nor did they conduct an analysis of legal acts and expertise on draft legislative acts. Additionally, they failed to develop a system for monitoring and evaluating measures taken to ensure gender equality. A new council with the same name, the Municipal Council on Women and Children's Issues, was created in all city councils, which confirms the existence of a centralized system of municipal governance.
• The performance of factions in municipal city councils is a very important lever of local democracy. According to the Law on Local Self-Government, city council members may form a faction. However, sometimes a faction is created not to achieve a specific goal, but rather to ensure a continuous salary. This explains why the chairpersons of various city council factions have five or more deputies. City council members are unpaid and receive salaries only if they hold a position. During the reporting period, the factions operating in the Kutaisi and Akhaltsikhe city councils did not submit any initiatives. The Poti City Council approved only the initiatives of the Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia faction and rejected both initiatives of the United National Movement faction. The Zugdidi City Council stands out among the city councils of the 2021 convocation because its factions were active and submitted a total of 89 written initiatives. Notably, the activities of a faction and its chairperson should benefit the relevant self-government. They should aim to improve the municipality’s activities and increase the accessibility and quality of municipal services, so that the faction’s activities correspond to the expenses incurred from the municipal budget.
• The city councils themselves should be interested in encouraging active citizens in every village and community who are able to adequately describe local problems and advocate for them before the local government. This will increase the number of civic activists and strengthen their engagement mechanisms. Civic activists, especially members of Transparency International Georgia’s Committees of Concerned Citizens, described and shared the problems with as many citizens as possible. However, the local city council did not adequately address the identified problems in the local budget. During the reporting period, only one petition was registered with the Poti City Council. The Akhaltsikhe City Council implemented one of the two petitions submitted by the Committees of Concerned Citizens, and did not register the other. No petitions were submitted to the Kutaisi City Council.

According to Transparency International Georgia, the listed facts and trends suggest that the local democratic process is in crisis. This crisis stems from the complex problems that have plagued the local self-government system for years, and the situation is much more acute for the city councils of the 2025 convocation. No Georgian government has taken clear steps toward greater decentralization to strengthen local democracy. Furthermore, the ultimate goal of all reforms is to strengthen the central government and consolidate the political power