Not using parliamentary rostrums ‘crime against country’ - Gakharia For Georgia opposition

Sharashidze said that not using the podiums of parliament and municipal assemblies was “not only a mistake but a crime against the country and its people"

Author
Front News Georgia
Giorgi Sharashidze, one of the leaders of the Gakharia For Georgia opposition party founded by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, on Monday criticised his party’s year-long boycott of parliament and local assemblies, calling the decision not only a mistake but “a crime against the country and the people.”
Sharashidze said the boycott - adopted unanimously by his political team after the parliamentary elections on 26 October last year - failed to stop what he described as the ruling party’s “machine of evil” and did not prevent decisions that damaged Georgia’s European integration, curtailed democratic freedoms and escalated violence against peaceful citizens.
“One year ago, after the 26 October parliamentary elections, our political team unanimously decided to boycott parliament. Unfortunately, we must admit that this form of political protest has not stopped the ‘Dream’ [Georgian Dream] machine of evil, nor did it prevent harmful de-facto government decisions such as the halt of Georgia’s Euro-integration process, the adoption of anti-democratic and human-rights-abusive reforms, or the hardening of an anti-democratic regime and violence against peaceful citizens,” Sharashidze said.
He acknowledged that the party had failed to persuade the wider political spectrum that abandoning parliamentary mandates was a mistake, a failure that he said contributed to a chain of events leading to the current difficult situation.
“We will no longer remain prisoners of our own mistakes or of illusions and self-deception. Our principal aim now is to fight for the preservation of dissenting voices. Therefore, we are returning all political instruments and platforms meant for the people to the service of the people, because the representative bodies of Georgia do not belong to ‘Georgian Dream’,” he added.
Sharashidze said that not using the podiums of parliament and municipal assemblies was “not only a mistake but a crime against the country and its people,” signalling his party’s intention to re-engage with formal political institutions and parliamentary processes.
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Giorgi Sharashidze