"What Ivanishvili and Dream have done personally in recent months is to take away the right of choice from the people. Preserving elections as an institution and upholding the results of yesterday's elections are directly linked to safeguarding the country's European future. Now is not the time to despair. Together, we must turn to forms of reasonable protest that primarily aim to protect our citizens' choices, defend the country's European future, and uphold the institution of elections," stated Giorgi Gakharia, the former Prime Minister and chairman of the For Georgia party.
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According to Gakharia, the facts demonstrate that Bidzina Ivanishvili violated the will of the Georgian citizens, and the results announced by the Central Election Commission do not reflect the desires of the Georgian people.
"Unfortunately, this did not happen yesterday, nor did it occur overnight. We have been discussing this for a long time.
I can say unequivocally that there was systematic intimidation of voters, bribery of voters, and manipulation of voters' identity cards. This constituted a systematic form of pressure on civil servants, including those who are socially vulnerable, involving their intimidation and the manipulation of their identity cards to steal the election results and undermine the will of the Georgian people.
In recent months, our team and our party have faced unprecedented pressure. Ivanishvili personally threatened me, my team, and young politicians with legal action. Of course, this had specific consequences that were reflected in the elections. Despite this, I want to express my gratitude to every member of our team, our observers, and our supporters. Despite the unprecedented pressure and the limited financial resources compared to others, and despite having no access to advertising time and the many forms of pressure exerted by the current government, we were able to demonstrate to everyone that the For Georgia party is, and will continue to be, a decisive voice in the political life of our country.
Therefore, I want to tell our citizens today that now is not the time to despair. Now is the time to protect every vote of the Georgian citizens by all means. We are working very closely with both international and local monitoring organizations, and we will pass on all the information our representatives have gathered in the districts," stated Giorgi Gakharia.
More than 99% of the votes from the parliamentary elections held on October 26 have already been counted. As per the preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission, Georgian Dream received 54.08% of the votes, while four opposition parties garnered a total of 37.58%. Like Giorgi Gakharia, the leaders of the Coalition for Change, Unity - National Movement, and Strong Georgia assert that the election results do not reflect the will of the people.
