There is an attempt to deprive citizens of their voting rights and influence their participation in elections through sabotage, stated Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili during a briefing at the “Georgian Dream” Gorgasali office.

According to Shalva Papuashvili, those who coined the term “peaceful overthrow” will not escape responsibility.

“We see yet another attempt to sabotage the elections, and the situation is particularly concerning because we have seen the announcement of election sabotage not only through refusal to participate, as declared by two parties that crossed the electoral threshold, but also through the announcement of a violent rally parallel to the elections and threats to disrupt them. We have seen coordinated actions by parties with representatives of non-governmental organizations and some media outlets. The attempt is to deprive citizens of their voting rights and influence their participation in elections through sabotage. We have heard paradoxical statements talking about overthrow while trying to make it seem compliant with the law by adding the word ‘peaceful’—which is complete nonsense. I would like to point out that there is case law from the Strasbourg Court on this matter. In one case concerning Turkey, an organization spoke of ‘legitimate jihad,’ legitimate violence, and by adding the prefix ‘legitimate,’ they tried to frame it as something that could be protected by freedom of expression. The Strasbourg Court has made a decision on this. Accordingly, I want to assure those who coined this term that they will not escape responsibility in any way. The word has already been spoken, and they cannot take it back. They talk about overthrow, about starting and finishing on the 4th, some [Lelo] talk about going to the elections in the morning and participating in the overthrow in the evening. Thus, we have seen direct sabotage of the elections. Therefore, it is important that tomorrow our citizens give a fitting response to all these initiatives,” stated Shalva Papuashvili.