Gakharia's For Georgia Party Ends Parliamentary Boycott After Nearly a Year
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia's opposition party, For Georgia, announced it will take its seats in Parliament, ending a nearly yearlong boycott, party member Giorgi Sharashidze said at a briefing.
The move follows Georgian Dream's approval in September of credentials for twelve new For Georgia members, after the mandates of the initial twelve were terminated in July due to the boycott. Since the disputed October 26, 2024, elections, Georgian Dream MPs had been sitting alone in the one-party legislature.
Sharashidze criticized the boycott as largely ineffective. "Unfortunately, we have to admit that this form of political protest failed to stop Georgian Dream's machinery of evil and to prevent the de facto government from making decisions harmful to the country," he said, citing measures such as halting European integration, passing restrictive laws, using violence against citizens, and undermining elections.
He added that the boycott "effectively removed the opposition from the political arena," allowing Georgian Dream to act without resistance and consolidate power, contributing to the unrest on October 4 during local elections.
Sharashidze acknowledged the party's own responsibility for failing to convince the opposition and public that revoking parliamentary mandates was a "mistake." "Today we no longer intend to remain captive to our own mistakes or to illusions," he said.
Citing new laws limiting protests and the imprisonment of demonstrators, he said the party's main goal is "to fight for the survival of free thought" and to return political platforms to the service of the people. "Georgia's representative bodies do not belong to Georgian Dream, but solely to the Georgian people," he said.
Sharashidze emphasized the need to respond to misinformation and hostility with "wise, calm, measured, and consistent steps."
Gakharia, currently in exile amid two ongoing investigations from his tenure as interior minister in 2019, had previously described the parliamentary boycott as a "mistake." The party also chose to participate in the October 4 local elections in partnership with Lelo/Strong Georgia, leaving the door open to re-enter Parliament, unlike some other opposition groups that have maintained their boycott.
