It is clear that participating in elections is important, but if these elections are a farce, rigged, then there is no point in taking part.

No one intends to waste their time! — said Nugzar Tsiklauri, one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change,” on Palitra News’ program “Day’s Newsroom,” responding to the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee report, which states that the local elections are another test of democracy and political pluralism, and the opposition must use this opportunity.

According to Tsiklauri, the same resolution also states that elections must be held in a free environment and must not show signs of bias.

“Clearly, participation in elections is important, but if these elections are a farce, rigged, then participating makes no sense. No one is going to waste their time! When two leaders of one party are arrested, a few days later Gvaramia is expected to be detained, there are over 50 political prisoners, female journalists are being arrested — talking about any elections means becoming part of Ivanishvili’s system,” Tsiklauri said.

He also commented on the position of “Lelo – Strong Georgia” regarding the local self-government elections. Nugzar Tsiklauri said that “Lelo” has developed a desire to start cooperating with Ivanishvili, for which he thinks the timing is very bad. He appealed to “Lelo”: “Don’t stubbornly persist in a mistake.”

“If they start operating according to Ivanishvili’s system, both Ivanishvili and the political opposition will end up with one result — a regression for Georgian society.

We were still discussing participation or non-participation at the beginning of March. It was then said that it was too early to talk about it. That was pouring water on Ivanishvili’s mill. Then Zurabishvili came out on behalf of the ‘Opposition Platform’ and said no one would participate in the local elections if there are no national parliamentary elections scheduled.

After the arrests of our political leaders began — Zurab Japaridze was detained on fabricated charges, Nika Melia was kidnapped, now they are arresting Gvaramia — that’s when ‘Lelo’ got the urge to start talking about cooperating with Ivanishvili.

I think this is very bad timing, and the emphasis this political party is making is very wrong. This topic has been actively discussed for 4-5 days; everyone should look at what is happening on social networks, the posts written by ‘Lelo’ representatives. There are thousands of comments, and only about 1% support participation in Ivanishvili’s elections. This is my opinion, not a call to action for ‘Lelo’: Don’t stubbornly persist in a mistake,” Tsiklauri stated.

In addition, he assessed statements by representatives of the “Georgian Dream” party regarding the resolutions and said that the statements by “Georgian Dream,” claiming democracy flourishes in Iran and China while Europe is a citadel of democracy and human rights, are odious, unacceptable, and financially motivated.

“For 2-3 years there have been clear attacks on our European partners. When we say this is a civilizational struggle, we mean that ‘Georgian Dream’ represents an anti-civilizational force that will not carry out elections or any democratic processes if they threaten its power. That is why participating in the local self-government elections for the regime is just putting on ornaments, beautifying the democratic facade,” Tsiklauri noted.