Georgian Parliament Speaker defines 2024 parliamentary elections as clear choice for development, sovereignty

On the first anniversary of the 2024 parliamentary elections, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili described the vote as a defining referendum for peace, traditional values, and national sovereignty.

In a social media message, Papuashvili portrayed the 2024 parliamentary elections as a pivotal moment where 54 percent of over 2.1 million voters chose peace, traditional values, and Georgia’s sovereignty, rejecting efforts to drag the country into conflict.

“Today is October 26. One year has passed since the parliamentary elections, which were declared a referendum aimed at ending the peace and development we have achieved through years of effort, with promises of dragging us into a neighbouring war. We accepted the referendum challenge and offered the Georgian people the clearest picture of the current geopolitical reality in simple and understandable language: no to war, yes to peace. Over 2.1 million voters went to the polls, and 54 percent of them made a clear and resounding choice: we choose peace, we reject war. However, this clear and simple response addressed multiple choices that have become defining for the ongoing political process. This choice was a vote for peace, as well as for traditional values, national interests, sovereignty, independence, economic development, family, culture, faith, and future generations. This was the essence that the ruling Georgian Dream party fought to defend. It fought inside and outside the country, defending the state’s identity and its right to govern itself. This struggle was joined by 1,120,053 patriots of Georgia, who expressed their unwavering will and defined the vector of Georgia’s future development”, he said.

The Speaker accused external globalist forces and their local allies of treating Georgia as a geopolitical pawn, dismissing its historical wisdom.

“The October 26 elections were a true, tangible moment that defined Georgia. Together with our genuine voters, we confronted not only internal, revanchist, and destructive forces, the distorted opposition imbued with the ideology of the United National Movement, but also their guiding external globalist forces, which have long assigned Georgia the role of a sacrificial pawn on the geopolitical chessboard. These forces, together with their local allies, declared that they know better what is good for Georgia and its future, what we need to study and pass, how we should protect our future, and where our place is. They dismissed the wisdom and prudence of a three-thousand-year-old state and pushed us toward the abyss. This is precisely the distorted reality they stubbornly and aggressively impose on us. When we spoke of dangers and risks, some did not believe that such forces truly existed. The sceptical minority supported the fragmented opposition. However, the steadfast majority chose the Georgian Dream party and the national interests of the homeland”, he noted.

Papuashvili highlighted post-election opposition tactics - such as claims of rigged elections and protest instigation - as evidence of their betrayal of voters.

“The events that unfolded after October 26 - the baseless declaration that fair elections were rigged, the artificial rekindling of a protest wave, the boycott announced by puppet opposition figures, and the sabotage of the political process - convinced the majority of the opposition’s voters of their mistake. The opposition parties chosen by their electorate deceived and misled them, squandering the trust and mandates they received. As subsequent events showed, the Government demonstrated strength and wisdom, while the enemies and saboteurs of the homeland followed their mandates into oblivion”, he said.

He also condemned Western countries for unprecedented interference in Georgia’s affairs, revealing a plan to replace the national Government.

“At the same time, over the past year, a new and unprecedented phenomenon was the utterly crude, insidious, and destructive interference by certain Western countries and their diplomatic missions in Georgia’s internal affairs. We saw how everything hidden was revealed, and the plan concerning Georgia was laid bare. This plan had nothing to do with supporting Georgia’s democracy, the expression of the people’s will, its strengthening, or further integration. This plan involved a desire to replace the national Government at any cost, and in case of failure, all forces - every agent of influence, open or covert, every media outlet or NGO, useless provocateur or useful idiot - were to be mobilised simultaneously. The veil was lifted from this distorted reality, and it stood exposed before us in its naked essence. The true Georgia stood up against the distorted forces nested abroad, for whom our country is a plaything for their specific interests. In this struggle, the front line runs through our citizens. In the ongoing war for the minds of people, they are the main target – their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviour. With precisely calculated psychological attacks, as is typical of malevolent forces, they convinced vulnerable individuals that the national government is supposedly Russian, that war does not exist, that the defeated are victorious, that charity is the destruction of the country, and that economic progress is poverty”, Papuashvili noted.

The October 4, 2025, local elections, the Speaker noted, reaffirmed the public’s support for the ruling Georgian Dream party, proving the resilience of Georgia’s democratic will against distortion and manipulation.

“On October 4, 2025, local self-government elections were held in Georgia, which put an end to all speculation, lies, and distortions. In a free environment, Georgia’s loyal voters, with the same numbers and spirit, went to the polling stations and reaffirmed their will, which had already been expressed multiple times. The legitimacy we received nine times over the past 13 years was granted to us by the Georgian people for the tenth time. That is why, today, I want to once again express gratitude to our voters, the true patriots. Gratitude is also due to all those citizens who support the country’s development within its constitutional framework, regardless of political views, who value peace, remember the bitter lessons of history, and hope for a better tomorrow”, he said.

“We will not fail, betray, or turn our backs on our responsibility and duty to the country. In the struggle between the genuine and the distorted, we will defend the true Georgia with all our strength, knowledge, and determination against every visible and invisible enemy, and we will correct every distortion, injustice, and aggression”, Papuashvili concluded.