UNM’s Bokuchava says ‘impossible to hold democratic elections’ if authorities ‘threaten opposition with bans’

Chair of the United National Movement Tina Bokuchava said on Thursday it is “impossible to hold democratic elections” when, as she put it, the ruling authorities reject elections themselves and threaten opposition parties with bans.

“Of course, elections are the most correct and logical form of democratic change, but only when the process allows real choice and that choice is not predetermined in advance by [the ruling party founder and honorary chair Bidzina] Ivanishvili,” she said.

Bokuchava added that democratic elections cannot take place in a situation where, in her words, political opponents are imprisoned, parties face bans and people are subjected to violence and repression.

“When the regime itself rejects elections, when political opponents are locked up in prisons, and when people are being poisoned and tortured with chemical agents and gas, and at the same time parties are threatened with outright banning, it is impossible to hold democratic elections,” she said.