“Despite many controversies, we agreed yesterday on the necessity and content of the non-recognition campaign. This now sets the agenda,” wrote Elene Khoshtaria, leader of the Droa party, on social media.

According to her, political parties must at least declare their stance and actively engage with the public.

“Let’s stop counting parties or comparing ourselves to others. What matters is this:

An overwhelming majority of pro-Western political groups, both in percentage and number, do not recognize the fraudulent elections. Beyond non-recognition, we reached consensus yesterday on launching a coordinated non-recognition campaign.

This defines today’s agenda.

Legitimacy is shaped by parties and the people. At a minimum, parties must express their position (we have) and begin working with the public through active campaigning (we’ve agreed on the content).

The goal: to deliver a major blow to the illegitimate system—perhaps a fatal one, or at least a weakening one.

The rest is noise—personal egos and distractions. I’m not interested in that; it only takes focus away from the real work.

In the end, we will win!” writes Khoshtaria.

Eight opposition parties have declared they will not participate in the upcoming local elections. Following this announcement, Elene Khoshtaria and Gedevan Popkhadze ended their hunger strike.