“I am not aware of the exact plans for the rally, nor am I in a position to comment on the extent to which certain tasks were or were not carried out. I want to emphasise that we had no involvement in the planning or organisation of this event,” stated Salome Samadashvili, a member of Lelo.

According to Samadashvili, it has been confirmed that Lelo’s stance regarding the local elections was justified.

“From the outside, everything appears as a very serious provocation, which, regrettably, was seized upon by certain political actors involved in this process. The government’s attempt to use provocation to hinder the peaceful progress must failed. The peaceful protests continue, and it will soon be a year since the citizens of Georgia have been peacefully resisting Russia’s efforts to undermine our sovereignty. We have consistently argued that we must fight for fair elections and urged everyone not to boycott, because a boycott would not harm this regime. The outcome of the boycotted elections, which sadly failed to exert any real pressure on Ivanishvili, has confirmed the correctness of our stance. We are deeply disappointed that our call to unite in this struggle was not heeded,” Samadashvili remarked.