European Georgia opposition party: solution for political crisis is snap elections

The opposition European Georgia party has presented its vision of overcoming the current political crisis in the country, stating that the solution lies in the defeat of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party via snap elections. 

Leader of the party Giga Bokeria said that talks about ‘achieving change only through non-electoral means’ is ‘harmful,’ noting that it ‘causes frustration among voters.’

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The opposition started protesting the results of the municipal election runoffs which took place on October 30, claiming the elections had been falsified and calling for the annulment of the results.

Based on the final results, the ruling party took 47% of the vote in the proportional part of the race, however, the opposition won the majority in city assemblies in seven out of 64 municipalities – Batumi, Zugdidi, Martvili, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha, Rustavi and Senaki.

European Georgia received 1.6% of the vote in municipal elections in Georgia while the Lelo opposition party garnered 2.7% in the proportional part of the elections. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

The European Georgia party also thinks that in order to gain widespread national support to hold snap elections ‘the opposition must stop simulating the democratic process in an illegitimate parliament.’

We cannot, on the one hand, call the elections meaningless, as this sends a false message and instills hopelessness, and on the other hand, [we cannot also] engage in routine procedures in parliament which creates a simulation of democracy,” Bokeria said.

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The Lelo opposition party leader Ana Natsvlishvili, however, criticised Bokeria for ‘turning into the opposition of the opposition’ stating that the opposition should be focused on system change. 

To call early elections without changing this system would leave the government with a very sharp, unjust weapon to fight against us,” Natsvlishvili says.

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Bokeria has also touched upon the issue of the former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who currently is serving his sentence for the abuse of power in two cases, and stated that it is ‘wrong, illogical and harmful’ to consider Saakashvili’s release from prison as a precondition for the defeat of the regime.