Lelo party leader explains why Georgian opposition should join local elections

The Chairman of Lelo – For a Strong Georgia, Mamuka Khazaradze, explained why it is important for the opposition to stop boycotting and participate in Georgia’s 2025 local elections. He argued that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party would prefer a boycott.

Speaking on TV Pirveli, Khazaradze did not explicitly confirm that the opposition coalition would participate. However, he spent much of his appearance explaining why boycotting would only help the ruling party.

“Bidzina Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream absolutely do not want a strong, united opposition platform to participate in these elections,” Khazaradze said, referring to the GD founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. “If we boycott and tell our activists nationwide to stay out of the fight, they will hold a model election. They’ll remove Kalandarishvili [referring to the current head of the Central Election Commission] and put in some nice new face, just like they replaced all the sanctioned people. They will put on a show.”

Khazaradze argued that if the opposition doesn’t fight for key cities, they will hand them to the ruling party and allow it to gain legitimacy. “This will allow Ivanishvili to show the world he held clean, fair elections. He will have an ‘opposition’—like the fake opposition that the parliamentary commission that summoned me was made of. The Georgian Dream will claim to have fixed the country, and they’ll have foreign observers backing them up,” Khazaradze said.

He emphasized that this would allow GD to build on an already illegitimate parliament by adding legitimate local councils—something Khazaradze called “building the foundation of the house.”

Khazaradze also said he is willing to meet with anyone who still supports boycotting the elections, including families of protesters recently detained by police.

A few days earlier, Lelo’s Secretary General, Irakli Kupradze, had called for serious discussions about participating in the local elections, saying, “It’s possible to win back Tbilisi and liberate it from violent, Russian-backed Georgian Dream rule.” Kupradze’s remarks sparked speculation that Lelo would indeed participate in the October elections, earning them criticism from parts of the public.

About a week ago, Giorgi Gakharia, leader of the For Georgia party, made similar comments, telling his party congress that they were preparing “for any upcoming election.”

Not everyone in Lelo agrees with its leader. This week, the head of Lelo’s Kaspi regional office, Irakli Miladze, announced he was leaving the party in protest. He cited moral objections to participating in local elections while there are “about 60 political prisoners” in the country and when the elections are “administered by GD.”

“I can’t lie to myself or to the voters. I won’t trade my conscience for a council seat in Kaspi," he said in a social media post. Miladze also revealed he was about to become a father and wanted to stay true to his values.