Ruling party chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili calls on public to vote

"We must go to the elections so that peace and stability may be uninterrupted", the ruling Georgian Dream party founder and chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili said, addressing the nation a day before the parliamentary elections on October 31. 

We must go to the elections so that the development of the country may continue, and we may take our rightful place in the European family. Let us continue to lead our country on the path to victory together and let us continue to fight together for Georgia's success”, Ivanishvili said in his video address.

He said ‘today marks the end of the mandate that was given to us by the Georgian people four years ago, when the Georgian Dream was entrusted with the fate of the country and the prospects for its development for a second term’. 

Therefore, ‘as the leader of the ruling political force’ Ivanishvii said he  would like to express his ‘wholehearted gratitude for this trust’.

• PM Gakharia: tomorrow’s elections define Georgia’s future development, I urge people to vote
• President Zurabishvili to citizens: ‘Go vote in peaceful, fair elections’

Ivanishvili further added that ‘tomorrow is one of the turning points in the history of our country’ when ‘every one of us must once again make a choice on the basis of our own beliefs, values, conscience, and interests’.

Noting that ‘the people are the source of power and only the people can decide who should lead the country’, he said ‘this is how democracy works’.  

I, on behalf of the Georgian Dream, guarantee that this choice will be free and that the will of the people will be reflected in the results of the election with absolute precision. The Georgian state will not permit even the smallest distortion of the choice of the people”, he stated.

Watch Bidzina Ivanishvili's video address before the upcoming parliamentary elections:

He then noted that ‘at the end of an emotionally charged election campaign’ today, he is ‘once again reminded of the tumultuous days' of 2012.

...When we, united as one, made a historic choice in favour of freedom, rejected a regime based on oppression, and let the whole world know that the freedom-loving, honourable people with a three-millennia-long history will never again tolerate violence and injustice”, Ivanishvili said.

That is why I address you, the supporters of the Georgian Dream, the veterans of the Dream, as well as newly enlisted soldiers: Tomorrow, not a single one of us may stay at home; everyone, without question, must go to the ballot boxes!” he addressed the ruling party supporters.

Calling on everyone to go to vote, Ivanishvili said ‘this is our duty to the country, to its future, to each other and, no matter how unusual this may seem, even to those who will make a choice in favour of another party tomorrow’.

It is a fact that all the success that the Georgian Dream has managed and been able to achieve during this difficult period did not turn out to have been enough to convince the minority of people who have a critical disposition toward us, and tomorrow, they will make a different choice”, he said. 

However, our numbers are greater, significantly greater, and precisely this is the responsibility of the majority before the minority – to be able to insure their mistake as well, so that they themselves do not end up having to pay a dear price for their wrong decision”, he added.

In his remarks he also said that the Georgian Dream has not been able to convince everyone, ‘which is completely normal in a democracy’.

Stating that he respects the choice of every citizen, Ivanishvili said he does not see ‘anything dramatic in the fact that some of them do not support the Georgian Dream’. 

Georgia is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, amid the coronavirus pandemic, with citizens going to the polls to elect the country’s 10th national legislature since independence from the Soviet Union back in 1991. Photo: Georgian Dream/Facebook

• Why are the October 31 parliament elections so special? All you need to know about the race

As he said, ‘dramatic is the situation whereby to this day, Georgian politics is unable to offer voters a sound alternative to counterbalance the Georgian Dream’.

Despite political diversity, the opposition field is still dominated by a revenge-oriented, destructive force, which is why a choice made against the Georgian Dream practically equals a choice made in favour of this force”, he said. 

Encouraging everyone to head to polling stations despite their political preferences, Bidizna Ivanishvili said ‘we must go to the elections so that peace and stability may be uninterrupted'.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia have also called on people to vote.