The Georgian Basketball Federation has a new president. Paata Guraspauli received 80 percent back up of the delegates represented in the electorate. Elections were held at Courtyard Marriott Hotel at 13:00 today. By the decision of the Board of the Federation, some basketball organizations were represented as delegates and according to their activity, they were awarded a percentage quota of votes in the elections:

Super League Clubs - 30%
Regional Federations - 30%
Basketball Schools - 10%
Low league clubs - 5%
Referee Union - 5%
Coaching Union - 5%
Veterans Union - 5%
Women's basketball organizations - 5%
Players' basketball organizations / unions - 5%

The list includes 34 delegates, out of which 27 were present at today's elections. 1 hour before the elections, one of the two candidates registered for the presidential election of the Federation, Shio Khetsuriani withdrew his candidacy. Shio Khetsuriani held a briefing in the hotel "Rooms" where he said that he would not take part in the elections. The withdrawal of his candidacy could not be procedurally organized due to a short period of time, so he was not withdrawn from the ballot papers submitted to the delegates.

The 27 delegates who came to the elections had 82 percent of the total votes. 26 delegates voted for the single candidate Paata Guraspauli, which amounted to 80 percent of the votes. This information was provided by the Voice Counting Commission, which included: Gia Sanadze, Paata Lobzhanidze, Lasha Toidze and Revaz Chkheidze.

Accordingly, Paata Guraspauli has become the president of the Georgian basketball federation with a huge advantage. The new president left all the members of the Federation Board - Mikheil Gabrichidze, Giorgi Kartvelishvili, Vladimir Boisa, Gia Sanadze, Nodar Korkia, Givi Bichiashvili and Valeri Lomadze and added four new members to them - Vakhtang Natsvlishvili, Lasha-Giorgi Gamkrelidze, Mikheil Abuladze and Paata Guraspauli himself.

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<strong>The new president, Paata Guraspauli, made the first comment</strong>:

“I’m grateful to the basketball community for trusting me. This is a big responsibility for me and I will do my best to justify this trust. First of all, I want to increase the functions of the Board of the Federation, which means increasing the number of members. The president should not be the chairman, but the regular member of the board. The main subjects will be given the time to submit their candidates. The point is that the basketball community should nominate candidates and choose members by themselves. For this purpose, I declare that in February we will hold an extraordinary congress and the number of board members will increase and be final. That board will be effective and active, which decides the issues of Georgian basketball.

I did not really expect it, and somehow, I felt bad that I was alone at the elections. But we must respect everyone’s decision. Once again, I indicate, that my team is always ready to cooperate with anyone who wishes for a better future of basketball.”

<strong>Vakhtang Natsvlishvili, President of "Dinamo Tbilisi", member of the Board of the Federation:</strong>

“I would like to congratulate Paata. I should tell him and all the members of the federation, that they have a great job to do. On today’s elections, we only had one candidate as well as on the previous elections and I wish that it will change in future. The basketball community is represented here and we deserved&nbsp; this election mandate after our years of careers. Current basketball players should concentrate on the game and the president should be chosen by the basketball community.”

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<strong>Vladimir Boisa, member of the Basketball National Federation Board:</strong>

“I would like to congratulate Paata with this victory and wish him success in the next 4 years. I will support the new president, as far as I know how difficult it is from the experience of my work in the federation. The last four years have been successful for Georgian basketball and progress will continue.”

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