President Salome Zurabishvili Sets Parliamentary Election Day for October 26, Speaks About its “Existential” Importance

On August 27 Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has signed a presidential decree officially setting October 26 as the date for holding parliamentary elections in Georgia. This marks the formal beginning of the pre-election period. At the briefing the President slammed the ruling party and its threats against Georgian citizens, whether with war or banning dissent, and stressed the importance of the elections “to get Georgia back on track,” saying it’s time for boldness and citizen mobilization. She called on Georgians to go to the polls on October 26.

In her briefing, the President stressed that “we are not dealing with normal elections” in which a citizen votes according to his political taste, but that “we are dealing with saving the future of the country” and that “our choice today is existential.” She said: “This choice will determine the fate of the country for many years to come.”

Zurabishvili said that “it is a lie” when “they try to convince us that the elections will be about the choice between ‘war and peace,'” as the ruling Georgian Dream party frames it. Zurabishvili said that elections cannot reduce the risks of war and that no one ever chooses war. No one in Georgia wants or is preparing for war, she said. She stated: “On the contrary, isolation, internal divisions, vagueness and ambiguity of goals and priorities are precisely what increase the enemy’s appetite, that is, the threat of war.”

Rather, the President said that the elections will indeed be “tantamount to” a referendum, but a referendum on “Europe or Russia”. She elaborated that the Georgian people must choose “past or progress,” “freedom or slavery,” “dictatorship or democracy,” “one-party power or multi-party government,” “dignity or no principles,” “Christian tolerance or Russian violence,” “independence or occupation.”

Zurabishvili said that “rarely” in their history have the Georgian people had such an opportunity to decide their future in a calm way, “by expressing their will”. “Precisely because we do not want war and internal confrontation, it is a must to say our word through the elections.”

Zurabishvili also condemned Ivanishvili’s April 29 speech, calling it “belligerent” and saying Ivanishvili had declared war “on his own people and youth, on patriots” inside the country and the country’s international partners, outside. “Then we clearly found ourselves at the crossroads of our future, facing a critical choice: Either there will be a European, democratic, free and indeed decent future, or there will be a return to the past, in the grip of Russia, which shows its cruelest and most merciless face every day,” Zurabishvili said.

The President also said that the GD promised its people “revanchism,” “revenge”, “harassment,” “persecution of dissenters,” “restriction of free protest,” “banning of political opponents,” as seen in the party’s regional tours. “In short, they promised us a one-party dictatorship,” Zurabishvili said.

Zurabishvili said the elections would be held under “really difficult conditions,” referring to government threats. She added that these threats of war and bans “mean nothing” because “there is no government that goes against its people and wins.”

“If everyone recognizes their own responsibility, if society is fully mobilized, then the votes and the stability and the future will be fully protected,” she said. There won’t be a second chance for such a choice, she emphasized.

“No one will deceive the Georgian people, neither with pseudo-pro-Europeanism nor with false patriotism… On October 26, the Georgian people will win,” Zurabishvili concluded.

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