Ruling party Honorary Chair casts vote: “choice between Gov’t serving people and foreign agents fulfilling external orders”

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Honorary Chair and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has cast his ballot in today’s parliamentary elections, saying people “have a simple choice, either we choose a Government that will serve the Georgian people or foreign agents fulfilling external assignments”.

“What makes today’s election remarkable is that the foreign country holds particular interests that it can immediately command its agents [if elected] to pursue”, he noted, calling on the public to head to the polling stations.

Ivanishvili emphasised the “[foreign-influenced] agents had an urgent assignment [from the country controlling them] to involve Georgia in war”. 

He also pointed out it would be the Government’s task to “cleanse politics of criminal influence, achieve a qualitatively new society free from such antagonism, hate speech, and polarisation”, claiming the “root of this polarisation” was that “some politicians strived to lead the country towards peace and victory, while others were serving foreign interests”.

Georgian citizens domestically and abroad are voting today in "historic" parliamentary elections that mark the country's first fully-proportional vote since it regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and the first vote where approximately 90 percent of ballots will be cast electronically.