Salome Zurabishvili: Neither an Election Participation Campaign Nor a Boycott Campaign Suits Us

"Criminal, mafia-like rules of collusion and intimidation prevail in our country. No citizen is protected anymore. If anyone in this country believes that local elections can be held, this is a great myth.

There are no elections; there is only the topic of elections, which Georgian Dream introduced – and the result has been achieved – to pit the opposition against itself, to divide the opposition, to pit two sides against each other, supporters and opponents. We are in an absurd theater, and everyone is playing their role to the extent that there is mutual cursing, swearing, bullying, and so on.

I am convinced that these elections will not be held, and the government will not see this election myth through to the end. But in the meantime, the opposition has split, and the protest has weakened.

The party participating in the elections will fail because there is no formula for success under these conditions. Even the parties advocating for participation do not declare ambitions to defeat the regime or even weaken it. I don't know what their goal is. If it's party consolidation, that won't happen either, as it has already led to such discredit, and they won't achieve any real results from the struggle that is our unified struggle."

On the other hand, according to Zurabishvili, there is no point in a campaign to boycott the elections either.

"A boycott, as a campaign, is also absurd, because there is no example of a boycott that was declared as any kind of victory.

It is clear that under current conditions, just as elections will be falsified if someone participates, so too will a boycott be falsified. Even more easily, because under conditions of fear, money, and threats, people can be led to participate in elections, even if they are against it, and if this boycott can be counted, the regime might present it as a victory. And generally, in dictatorial regimes, boycott campaigns end this way.

Therefore, neither an election participation campaign nor a boycott campaign suits us, because on both sides we are fragmented – on the one hand, a huge amount of financial resources are being spent, as stated by the parties participating, and on the other hand, human resources that should be going into protest will be spent on some boycott campaign, the content of which I find a bit difficult to understand.

Our solution remains the same, and this is unity. Everything that serves confrontation, division, and hopelessness – these are the last levers of the Georgian Dream regime, which is already partially collapsed.

According to the fifth president, political parties should strengthen the protest rather than involving it in their internal conflicts.

"For this, the plan is quite simple, but it must be carried out very substantively. First and foremost, we should acknowledge that no one won and no one lost. We will not participate in this election farce, but rather everyone will participate in the final stage of this struggle. This, first and foremost, requires that the Resistance Platform be revived, strengthened, and expanded. This must encompass all groups and formats that gather from different angles and have different opinions. Every opinion is necessary, and the representation of every group is essential.

This platform must establish what we lack to this day, what we should have had much earlier, and what is called a transitional government, because no one likes a vacuum. Our society's anxiety and its, perhaps, lesser involvement also stem from the fact that it doesn't see – 'if not them, then who?' This is a constant question when a regime change occurs. We are obliged to answer this question."

[...] Third, what we need is an action plan, a program, and we have it – this is the Georgian Charter, which needs to be updated. Some things have changed since its adoption, but essential parts have not. This will be our joint action plan. Also, we already have a document that reflects the necessary preconditions that must be met for new, free parliamentary elections to be held, which will also follow the collapse of this regime," Zurabishvili stated.

Without the holding of new parliamentary elections, 8 parties are boycotting the local elections: Ahali, Girchi – More Freedom, Droa, Federalists, United National Movement, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, European Georgia, and Freedom Square. The parties Gakharia – For Georgia and Lelo – Strong Georgia intend to participate in the ballot.