 According to Jonathan Wheatley, it was on Mamalalze's recommendation that six Azeris became Members of Parliament in the 1999 election and later joined the Alliance for a New Georgia that he had helped form.At the same time, members of the local government were dominated by ethnic Georgians appointed by him, including heads of all majority-Azeri municipalities.In a 2003 interview, then Prime Minister and future President Mikheil Saakashvili criticised Mamaladze for carrying out a smearing campaign against opposition parties and soliciting Azeri votes by spreading rumours that the new government would organise mass deportations of Georgia's Azeri population.