Georgian Dream holds final pre-election rally in Tbilisi

Tens of thousands of people were bussed into Tbilisi for Georgian Dream’s final pre-election rally on Wednesday.

Ahead of the rally, Georgian Dream supporters came to central Freedom Square led by Tsotne Ivanishvili, the son of the party’s honorary chair Bidzina Ivanishvili, Olympic champion Geno Petriashvili, who is in Georgian Dream’s election list, and para-athlete Vakhtang Akhobadze.

According to opposition-aligned media, the ruling party used administrative resources, allegedly including forms of pressure, to bring people from the regions.

Tbilisi was gridlocked for hours throughout the day on Wednesday, as large parts of the city centre were closed in preparation for the rally. 

Later, buses that brought in supporters from the regions were parked on several main arteries in the city, adding to the traffic. 

The rally that followed the march lasted for about an hour and a half, and consisted of speeches by high-ranking party members, including Ivanishvili, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, chair of the party Irakli Gharibashvili, General Secretary of Georgian Dream and Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, and others. The gathering was capped off with a song and a speech by Ivanishvili’s son Bera Ivanishvili. 

Speakers at the rally largely repeated earlier statements and electoral pledges. Ivanishvili again vowed to ban opposition parties if Georgian Dream gains a constitutional majority in the election. He also reiterated that the party would enshrine the protection of family values and ‘take specific steps to protect and strengthen the Orthodox Church’ at the constitutional level. 

Addressing the massed supporters, Ivanishvili claimed that ‘the political heartbeat of our country can be felt best in Tbilisi, and to a large extent it is Tbilisi that determines the political future of Georgia. It was so in the past and it is so now’.

Ivanishvili again referred to the previous government under the now oppositional  United National Movement (UNM) party, stating that ‘since 2003, Georgia has been governed by a regime controlled by external forces’. Georgian Dream has previously accused UNM of commiting ‘crimes’ against the Georgian people and claimed that its leaders were ‘appointed’ by a ‘foreign agency’.

Georgian Dream has been in power since 2012 after defeating UNM in parliamentary elections.

On Wednesday, Ivanishvili also reiterated past claims that under the Georgian Dream government, Georgia would become a member of the EU.

‘If Georgian Dream wins in the 26 October parliamentary elections, which not only I, but all of Georgia, including our opponents, are sure of, we will not only maintain peace and save the country, but we will also win, because we have years of development and reconstruction ahead of us and integration into the European Union’.

In his speech, Ivanishvili emphasised the importance of peace and warned of the dangers of war, a common refrain from Georgian Dream leaders against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Georgia, along with Moldova and Ukraine, applied to join the EU in early 2022. While Moldova and Ukraine received candidate status in June 2022, Georgia was rejected. Following the completion of recommended reforms, the EU officially granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023.

Later, as Georgian Dream’s rhetoric became increasingly anti-EU and anti-US, European leaders stated in June 2024 that Georgia’s path toward EU accession had been effectively frozen. It was the EU’s most explicit statement yet regarding the consequences of Georgia’s adoption of the foreign agent law and a wave of political violence targeting government critics.

Both the EU and US have since suspended financial assistance packages and other collaborative projects with Georgia. 

[Read more: EU: Georgia’s accession ‘de facto’ on halt]

Statements and warnings from the EU notwithstanding, Georgian Dream has continued with its ostensibly pro-European rhetoric, which was again repeated at Wednesday’s rally.