2018 Presidential Elections in Georgia and more importantly its second round,point to the fact that Georgia took a step backwards from the democratization process. Massive bribery of voters, close cooperation between the political party Georgian Dream and State Security Service of Georgia as well as other state institutions, mobilization of criminal organizations by the government to intimidate and influence voters, violation of the privacy during the voting process, use of false identification documents, practice of so called “electoral carousel”, radical dis-balance in financial resources available for candidates - are number of fundamental problems and illegal activities that influenced the outcomes of  the elections and raised the issues of its legitimacy.

It is extremely alarming that in order to win the elections, the government relied on almost all openly anti-Western groups, thus once again demonstrating having the strategic alliance with them. While in 2012 there were only circumstantial arguments indicating to the pro-Russian affiliation of the political coalition established around the oligarch, the 2018 Presidential Elections demonstrated that Salome Zurabishvili and the current government of Georgia mostly rely on the support from the anti-western groups that are loyal to Russia.

Taking over the Presidential Office by the candidate whose public discourse follows the official rhetoric of the Kremlin, jeopardizes the future of the Georgian state and the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of its population. Accordingly we believe that it is necessary to actively oppose the attempts of the oligarch to change the vector of the country’s foreign priorities and legal foundations of its territorial integrity by capturing the state institutions. Moreover, it is important to liberate state affairs from the influence of the oligarch and revive Georgia’s democratization process.

We address the international community to closely follow developments in Georgia and provide support to all pro-western groups whether political, non-governmental or media that experience extreme pressure from the government.