Mamuka Khazaradze confirms opposition Lelo party will participate in upcoming local self-government elections

Mamuka Khazaradze, the leader of the opposition Strong Georgia-Lelo party, on Friday confirmed that the Lelo party would participate in the local self-government elections scheduled for October 4.

Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili on Friday pardoned Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, the leaders of the party.

In his remarks, Khazaradze noted that the decision to participate in the elections was made while he was still in prison.

“The decision regarding the elections has been made by the Strong Georgia-Lelo party. Today's decision by the President indicates that he wants to bring chaos and confrontation to the opposition wing. I would like to tell you that despite the fact that our tactics of struggle are different, we all have the same goal - this goal is the European future of our country, the new parliamentary elections, the release of political prisoners, prisoners of conscience - for this goal, we will continue this struggle. As for the rest, I respect everyone, but we will make the decision independently. Of course, we made the decision to participate in the elections when we were already in prison”, Khazaradze said.

In a social media message, the President noted that despite various circumstances, the decision had been made “to eliminate even the slightest pretext for anyone to claim that the local self-government elections [scheduled for October 4] are being held under conditions of limited competitiveness”.

The statement emphasised that although the elections would have remained competitive even with the two leaders serving their prison sentences, Kavelashvili decided to issue pardons to ensure a fully open electoral process.