Gakharia’s Party to Take Up Parliament Seats, Ending Yearlong Boycott

Former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s opposition For Georgia party members will take their seats in Parliament, ending a nearly yearlong boycott, party member Giorgi Sharashidze announced at a briefing on October 20.

The end of the parliamentary boycott comes after Georgian Dream MPs, sitting alone in the one-party legislature since the disputed October 26, 2024, elections, approved the credentials of twelve new For Georgia members in September, following the termination of the initial twelve members’ mandates in July due to the continued boycott.

“Unfortunately, we have to admit that this form of political protest,” Sharashidze said of the parliamentary boycott, “failed to stop Georgian Dream’s machinery of evil and to prevent the de facto government from making decisions harmful to the country such as halting Georgia’s European integration, adopting anti-democratic and rights-violating laws, tightening the autocratic regime, using violence against peaceful citizens, stealing free and fair elections, and committing many other criminal, anti-national and anti-state acts.”

“The parliamentary boycott, which evolved into a boycott of the entire political process,” Sharashidze claimed, “effectively removed the opposition from the political arena.” He added, “As a result, Georgian Dream was able to act very quickly, without any resistance, and further entrench authoritarianism, which led us to the October 4 provocation,” he added, referring to the unrest in Tbilisi on local election day.

He said the party blames no one but itself for failing, after the October 26 general elections, to convince the opposition and the public that the revoking of the parliamentary mandates was a “mistake,” adding, “Today we no longer intend to remain captive to our own mistakes or to illusions.”

Citing, among other things, what he described as “irresponsible” and “provocative” events on October 4 – which, he said, gave Georgian Dream a chance to “justify tightening authoritarianism ” – as well as the new laws restricting protests and the imprisonment of demonstrators, he said, “We have to admit that removing the opposition from the political arena left people defenseless in the face of the regime.”

“That is why our main goal is to fight for the survival of free thought. There is another truth in this country, and we must bring that truth to light,” he said, adding, “We are therefore beginning the process of returning all political instruments and platforms intended for the people back to the service of the people, because Georgia’s representative bodies – municipal councils at the local level and Parliament at the national level – do not belong to Georgian Dream, but solely to the Georgian people.”

He said that refusing to use the platforms of local councils and Parliament is “not only a mistake, but also a crime against the country and its people,” adding, “The voice of Georgian citizens and dissenting opinions must be heard in the Parliament of Georgia.”

“It is time to respond to lies with truth, and to the language of hatred and hostility with wise, calm, measured, and consistent steps,” Sharashidze concluded.

The party leader, Giorgi Gakharia, who is in exile due to two ongoing investigations into his 2019 tenure as interior minister, said as the GD Parliament’s fall session reconvened that the parliamentary boycott was a “mistake.” Following his remarks, and amid the party’s unwillingness to boycott local elections, several members quit the party.

The former prime minister’s party, one of four opposition groups to clear the 5% threshold in the disputed 2024 parliamentary elections, had joined the opposition’s boycott of the one-party legislature but, unlike the other three alliances, stopped short of formally renouncing its mandates.

Unlike other mainstream opposition groups, For Georgia also ran in the October 4 local elections in cooperation with another major opposition group, Lelo/Strong Georgia, which remains in a parliamentary boycott after the Georgian Dream Parliament terminated its mandates following the party’s decision to revoke them. Gakharia’s For Georgia did not take that step, leaving the door open to enter Parliament if it changed its mind.

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