“In football, a clever tactic called offside trap misfires sometimes, and the opposite team scores an easy goal,” wrote Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on the X Platform.

According to the Speaker, this failed maneuver is observed in Georgian politics now, masterminded by some of foreign actors and “badly executed by the Georgian opposition.”

“For almost a year now, the opposition’s and its foreign allies’ tactic against the elected government has been one of deliberate snub, which was to put the Georgian authorities in a position of tactical impasse. Instead, Georgian Dream is about to win another municipal election, which part of the opposition boycotted, relying on an unconstitutional and dangerous strategy of violent toppling of the government.

This failed tactic started with a deeply flawed decision of not accepting the results of the October 2024 parliamentary elections. The opposition’s foreign allies wrongly assumed that they would win the election and, thus, tried hard to assist them in electoral campaign, by synchronized political messaging in favor of the opposition and providing resources to a notorious grouping of foreign-funded NGOs, which agitated against the incumbent party. Moreover, nearer to the election day, some of them, in violation of all diplomatic red lines, directly joined the opposition’s electoral campaign. It was obvious that some foreign politicians and diplomats went ‘all-in’ against the government and in support of the opposition.

However, the foreigners’ conviction of the opposition’s victory turned out to be false. Their campaign of portraying the elections as a watershed, a referendum and calls for Georgians to come out and vote did work, albeit the voters who showed up were, in fact, the great silent majority of our population, who understood the real content of referendum and voted for Georgian Dream and for Georgia’s peaceful and prosperous future, not the violent and troublesome past associated with the opposition,” he said.

Shalva Papuashvili believes that everyone must “capture the zeitgeist” of ending the wars and international confrontation.

“Since the foreigners associated themselves with the opposition so openly, then they had to own the opposition’s defeat. The shock was so unexpected and the extent of cognitive dissonance was so great that they decided to deny the reality and embark on a policy of sabotaging the newly elected Parliament. This was all too irrational because the opposition received 61 out of the total of 150 mandates, which would have been a significant force to reckon with in the Parliament. However, part of the opposition chose to reject the people’s trust and abandon the seats in the Parliament.

Election denialism then started a vicious cycle: it inspired the parliamentary sabotage, and the sabotage was followed by the refusal to participate in this year’s municipal elections. Moreover, they threatened to foil the election process too. But the offside trap misfired. The plans to disrup the elections failed. The elections are taking place in due time. Two out of four opposition parties that cleared the election threshold in 2024 are now participating in elections but stands no chance of scoring any significant victories. Georgian Dream is poised to score full electoral victory.

Meanwhile, these elections offer a genuine moment of reckoning. Those who started the vicious cycle of election denialism, now stand a chance to redeem their flawed stance, show due respect to Georgia’s sovereignty and popular legitimacy and return to the civilized fold of inter-state relations.

We must capture the zeitgeist of ending the wars and international confrontation. Georgia’s October 4 elections offer a litmus test and a great opportunity for those who come to Georgia in good faith for ending the vicious cycle of confrontation and non-cooperation, for “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together,” he said.

In football, a clever tactic called offside trap misfires sometimes and the opposite team scores an easy goal. We are observing this failed maneuver in Georgian politics now, masterminded by some of foreign actors and, as usual, badly executed by the Georgian opposition.

For… pic.twitter.com/v15KNtsYAe

— Shalva Papuashvili 🇬🇪 (@shpapuashvili) September 23, 2025