UNM’s Pavlenishvili: No free elections possible while nearly million people are denied their voting rights

Irakli Pavlenishvili, Deputy General Secretary of the United National Movement, stated that the Georgian Dream government is targeting citizens who support opposition parties.

Pavlenishvili was questioned regarding a constitutional appeal aimed at banning several opposition parties. He explained that restricting active voting rights would affect up to a million people, even by the government’s own estimates, warning that such a move would officially enshrine authoritarianism in the country.

“Forget parliamentary elections; there are no elections of any kind in this country as long as we maintain an approach where nearly a million people can be stripped of their active voting rights,” stated Irakli Pavlenishvili.

“They aren’t just restricting the passive voting rights of representatives from these four parties; they are disenfranchising the people who, by their own reckoning, number up to a million and, as seen in the last elections, vote for these four political parties.

Not a shred of democracy will be left in this country; authoritarianism will be permanently legalised. This will be a red line, not least for the West, and any talk of legitimacy for future electoral processes will be completely off the table,” Pavlenishvili added.