Justice Minister: Georgian public “main guarantor” President’s predictions on elections results will “fail”

Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Wednesday claimed predictions by country’s President Salome Zourabichvili on the ruling Georgian Dream party failing to obtain substantial support from its voters in the parliamentary elections next month would “not come true”, adding the “Georgian public will be the main guarantor” of an opposite result.

Bregadze’s comments came after Zourabichvili told French newspaper Le Figaro that GD was “weakened” following public protests against the controversial law on transparency of foreign influence, reintroduced by the party in the spring before its eventual adoption, and claimed the party would fail to receive “more than 25 percent” of voter support in the elections.

According to the Georgian constitution, the functions assigned to her and these types of political statements are not fully consistent with each other. Her predictions will not be justified, and Georgian people will be the main guarantor of this on October 26”, Bregadze responded by saying.

It is possible that United National Movement [opposition party] with all its branches - such as Khazaradze [leader of Lelo opposition party] and other political parties - will not even exceed 25 percent. The claim that GD will take 25 percent has about the same probability as [saying] we will be on the moon in exactly one second”, he added.

The Minister claimed the President “should be politically neutral [and] should not be making such statements, unless she has representative functions” and added if she was “determined to become an active participant in political processes”, there were “other formats for this purpose”.