Kara Orujev, a former candidate for the majoritarian parliamentary seat of the Lelo party in Kizilajlo, who withdrew his candidacy in favor of the Georgian Dream, confirms that his voice is heard in the released video footage, but claims that the recording was edited and the content of the conversation is not true.

Orujev says that he did not talk to criminal authorities and no one offered him money.

As Orujev claims, he left the party of his own free will.

“I confirm that my voice is heard in the footage. I was talking to a friend who is a member of the Lelo party. I want to say that the recording was edited and the content of the conversation is not true. My relatives have told me to withdraw my candidacy and my decision was conditioned by this. I explained to the leaders of the Lelo party that they should not make the same mistakes that they made in the previous elections, otherwise I would leave the party. The reason for this is not in me, but in the party chairman, who was unable to organize the process. I have neither been offered money nor talked with criminal authorities. What I said is that neither criminals nor anyone else would put pressure on me, I left the party of my own free will," Kara Orujev told the media, the translation of whose comment was released by Rustavi 2.

For information, the coalition Lelo - Strong Georgia has released an audio recording, which, according to them, confirms the attempt to pressure, violence, threats and bribe one of the coalition's majoritarian candidates, "because of which he withdrew his candidacy."

As the joint mayoral candidate of Lelo - Strong Georgia and the party Gakharia for Georgia Irakli Kupradze noted at the briefing today, the pressure on the Lelo - Strong Georgia majoritarian candidate for Kizilajlo was carried out with the involvement of the State Security Service and local police officers.

The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has launched an investigation into the audio recording released by Lelo under Article 162 of the Criminal Code.