Even if parties are banned, there must still be a plan. The political process cannot be dead at that time and the public must not have the feeling that politicians are not preparing, even for snap elections called unexpectedly, said Nino Lomjaria, Executive Director of “Georgia’s European Orbit”.

She says it is “not necessary for the concrete steps to be discussed publicly”.

“If specific opposition parties do not stand together, someone else will. Other forces or interested persons will appear and will probably fill that niche. Of course, if parties or some parties are banned, there must still be a plan in that case too. That is exactly what I mean: every scenario must be discussed in the political spectrum. Politicians must be ready for every scenario. Whether two, three, four, five, eight or however many parties are banned, every scenario must be worked out. There must be a plan for every scenario showing how the political process continues. It is not necessary for these issues to be discussed publicly. It is not necessary for the protest participants to be involved. The process must go on, even behind closed doors; it is not necessary for everything to be discussed in front of the public. The main thing is that the process is happening. When they are sacrificing themselves and protesting, the main thing is that the public knows the political process is continuing. And that people who have political ambitions are preparing for the future parliamentary elections that may one day be called completely unexpectedly, and for which citizens have been sacrificing themselves for a whole year. One of the main demands, along with freeing political prisoners, is early elections. When they are called, politicians cannot say they were not ready. The political process cannot be dead at that time and the public cannot feel that politicians are not preparing, even for unexpectedly called early elections,” Lomjaria said.