Irakli Kobakhidze and Bidzina Ivanishvili must answer why they placed those parties in second and third place which are participating in their legitimacy games. Who actually believes that the GORBI poll is neutral? — Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to have a systemic opposition, and some are doing this either willingly or unwittingly, said Levan Sanikidze, one of the leaders of the United National Movement, in response to the GORBI poll.

According to him, the goal of this poll was to diminish the role of those parties that are not participating in the October 4 elections and to convince voters to take part in “Bidzina Ivanishvili’s legitimacy games.”

“Just as there will be no real elections on October 4, GORBI's poll is not a real poll. Georgian Dream must be asked why it decided to distribute the opposition parties this way. This poll has nothing to do with sociology. According to any neutral research, 70% of voters are against taking part in this Russian special operation on October 4. The numbers that Georgian Dream and its propaganda media are showing are manipulative attempts to somehow convince voters to participate in Ivanishvili’s legitimacy games.

Irakli Kobakhidze and Bidzina Ivanishvili must answer why they ranked in second and third place the very parties involved in their legitimacy games. Does anyone believe the GORBI poll is neutral? Has the GORBI poll even actually been conducted? Who believes that? The main point behind this pile of printed paper is that Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to have a systemic opposition — and some are going along with it, whether knowingly or not.

Only God knows what GORBI’s real goal was. Its purpose was to show that Georgian Dream supposedly has 60% support and to downplay the role of those parties that do not collaborate with Ivanishvili’s regime. Any survey shows that the United National Movement is growing, and I’m sure that when the next poll is conducted by an impartial organization, it will show even greater support for the UNM,” Sanikidze said.

Sanikidze also responded to media reports that Aleko Elisashvili might be the joint mayoral candidate in Tbilisi from Lelo–For a Strong Georgia and Gakharia–For Georgia. According to him, Elisashvili’s change of stance on participating in the elections has no objective justification.

"Lelo and Gakharia had declared they would not participate in the local elections. Often, Lelo’s representatives used even harsher rhetoric than we did — saying that entering these elections would be a betrayal of the struggle. They said that whoever remained in parliament was playing Putin’s game, yet they walked it all back. They said they'd be a fig leaf — now they’re entering the elections under this pretext. Whether they nominate a neutral or partisan candidate is irrelevant at this point. As for Aleko, I don’t believe that anyone in the country — let alone Aleko Elisashvili — could change the current public mood among pro-Western voters. When over 70% say that this election is, by definition, a Russian special operation meant to grant legitimacy to Ivanishvili, not even Dimitri Gelovani, let alone Aleko Elisashvili, can change that perception.

To me, this whole thing looks like a horse race for second place — to see who’ll wear the mantle of the main opposition party. Just as GORBI wrote those numbers, they’ll write the election results too. How can anyone imagine that the parties we accuse of participating in Ivanishvili’s legitimacy games would gain our support?

I don’t believe there is any objective reason for Aleko Elisashvili’s change in position. The CEC is even worse, there are even more political prisoners, and the public mood is even more anti-election. So what’s the motivation? Ask Aleko Elisashvili — because lately, we rarely hear the word ‘victory’ in their rhetoric. A party that once claimed it would defeat and overthrow Ivanishvili now cannot even use the word ‘victory.’

Our reasoning starts from this premise — there is no real election on October 4. Just as no one can control what GORBI will publish, no one can control what the CEC will write or what number Bidzina Ivanishvili will want next to your party’s name. What will happen on October 4 is a Russian special operation, whose goal is to grant legitimacy to Bidzina Ivanishvili and normalize the situation — it has nothing to do with strengthening a protest wave. On the contrary, those who participate in these so-called elections are admitting that they don’t believe in protest.

Therefore, our position was, is, and will be — guided by pragmatic thinking and the interest of the Georgian people — we will take precisely the steps those principles dictate,” said Levan Sanikidze.