It’s been more than three months since parliamentary elections were held in the eastern European nation of Georgia. According to the country’s authorities, the Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012, won the vote. This meant it would get 89 of the 150 seats in the country’s parliament.
However, as a number of international organizations have pointed out, there were serious problems with Georgia’s most recent elections.
Having sent election observers to watch the ballot, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, concluded there were “serious concerns” about “the independence of institutions involved in the election process and pressure on voters.”
Parliamentary boycott
As a result, Georgia’s opposition parties have refused to recognize the result and are boycotting the current parliament.
In early February, 49 opposition politicians in parliament were stripped of their mandates by the Georgian Dream-run institution. The move came after the opposition politicians had themselves rejected their mandates because of what they say was a rigged election.
They are not alone. Many people in Georgia don’t accept the results either and have taken to the streets to protest. Ordinary people are being supported by leaders of Georgian opposition parties, many of whom have regularly joined the demonstrations.
The protests broke out after newly appointed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced in November 2024 that he was suspending talks on Georgia’s bid to join the European Union (EU) for four years. Since then, the opposition has been calling for new elections, demanding that work towards integrating with the EU start again, and has also said that imprisoned demonstrators should be released.
“The strategic goal of the boycott is to deny the government legitimacy,” said Elene Khoshtaria, founder of the Droa party, a member of a larger group of pro-western, liberal parties called Coalition for Change. “If it [the current government] has manipulated the elections, then it must not exercise state power. The overwhelming majority of the Georgian people also think this and you can see that on the streets, where masses have been protesting for months.”
Khoshtaria is certain that the majority of the Georgian people do not support the current government.
Another politician who renounced his mandate in the current parliament is Petre Tsiskarishvili, secretary general of the opposition party United National Movement.
“The Georgian Dream party manipulated the elections and intimidated civil society with street gangs and the police,” Tsiskarishvili said. “Everyone in the country knows that these elections were neither free nor fair. It is neither morally nor politically justifiable to sit in a plenary hall with these people just because we got 10% of the vote.”
Political parties that don’t enter parliament don’t receive state funding, he pointed out.
“So the only platform that remains is protests, meetings with voters in cities and in the regions, and independent media and social networks that still function,” Tsiskarishvili said. “But these are also under pressure from the authorities.”
