Parliament official claims opposition’s election boycott aims to conceal public distrust

David Matikashvili, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party and Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on Procedural Issues and Rules, on Saturday said if the domestic opposition decided to boycott the upcoming local elections scheduled for October, the reason would be clear - to avoid exposing the public’s deep distrust toward radical opposition forces.

Matikashvili's comments came after four opposition parties that crossed the electoral threshold in the parliamentary elections held last October announced that they would not take part in the local elections.

“The untrustworthy and unsuccessful radical opposition will see the same outcome regardless of whether they participate in the local elections or not. They have completely lost the public's confidence. If they decide not to participate in the elections, the only reason will be to avoid further exposing the public's distrust towards them”, the Parliament official said.

Matikashvili further emphasised that the opposition’s claims of making principled decisions were often short-lived, suggesting that they might reconsider their stance.

“However, we have seen them make so-called principled decisions before, only to reverse them later. So, we should not rule out the possibility that radical opposition parties will line up at the Central Election Commission to register for the elections”, he concluded.