Georgian opposition parties announce boycott of local elections

Eight opposition parties in Georgia have announced they will boycott upcoming local self-government elections, calling the vote a “legitimization of an illegal regime” and vowing to continue fighting to dismantle what they described as an “oligarchic system.”

The joint statement was presented outside the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi by Elene Khoshtaria, leader of the opposition party Droa. She had been on a hunger strike along with Gedevan Popkhadze, a former member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, but ended it following the unified announcement.

Mass protests erupted in Georgia in May last year after the government passed a controversial foreign agents law. The European Union and the United States criticized the Georgian authorities, while the ruling Georgian Dream party accused the West of “financing a revolutionary scenario” in the country. Protests resumed in the autumn after the Georgian Dream claimed victory in parliamentary elections, which the opposition denounced as “fraudulent.”