Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include information that, along with Khoshtaria, other individuals also ended their hunger strike.
Elene Khoshtaria, the leader of the opposition Droa party, ended her hunger strike after eight Georgian opposition parties made a joint statement announcing their boycott of the 2025 Georgian local elections.
Representatives of various political groups gathered to read the statement on Monday evening, standing in front of the parliament building where Khoshtaria began her protest action three days before.
The parties stated that given the current reality in Georgia, their participation in the local elections would not serve the people’s interests but would only lend legitimacy to the ‘illegal Russian regime’, referring to the Georgian Dream government.
‘We, Georgia’s pro-Western political parties and groups, whose goal is the complete dismantling of [Bidzina] Ivanishvili’s Russian regime [...] recognise the necessity of joint action’, they said, adding that ‘the path to victory goes through complete non-cooperation with the regime’.
The text was signed by eight political groups, including Ahali, Girchi — More Freedom and Droa, which are members of the opposition Coalition For Change, and United National Movement (UNM), Strategy Aghmashenebeli, and European Georgia from the Unity — National Movement coalition. The Federalists and Freedom Square also joined the statement.
‘In this spirit and with this approach, I am very glad to end my hunger strike so that we can all together move into a very active phase of the struggle’, Khoshtaria said.
Alongside Khoshtaria, all those who had joined the hunger strike in solidarity with her also ended their protest.
After the beginning of the strike, Khoshtaria explained that her action was a statement that the struggle against Georgian Dream must continue with ‘great determination’, including through a full boycott of the upcoming local elections by the opposition, the creation of a political alternative, and intensifying the protests.
‘At this stage, I consider it crucial for political parties to have clarity on their strategy of struggle, because as long as Georgian Dream is on the offensive, our ambiguity fuels nihilism’, she stated in a Facebook post on Sunday.
In one interview, the politician said she was ready to end her hunger strike if the opposition agreed to boycott the local elections — an issue that has been a subject of discussion and debate among Georgian opposition parties four months ahead of the vote.
Many of the political groups that made Monday evening’s statement had already announced their decision to boycott the elections, stating that they do not recognise the legitimacy of Georgian Dream’s government following last October’s disputed parliamentary elections.
The For Georgia party, founded by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, was not among the signatories. The Lelo party also did not sign the statement. In their previous statements, they have not ruled out participating in the elections. Lelo leader Mamuka Khazaradze has stated before that an opposition boycott would serve the government’s interests by allowing it to further consolidate its power.
For his part, Gakharia said in April his party is preparing both for the local elections and for new parliamentary elections, which the opposition has been demanding, so far unsuccessfully. When asked what his party would do if a repeat parliamentary vote was not called, he replied, ‘If it isn’t called, then we’ll decide whether to participate or not’.
Khoshtaria’s hunger strike happened amid the arrests of numerous opposition leaders for failing to appear before a parliamentary commission created to investigate the opposition.
Virtually all political leaders from the opposition Coalition for Change, except Khoshtaria, have been jailed on similar accusations. Zurab Japaridze of Girchi — More freedom as well as Ahali leader Nika Melia have already been sentenced to seven and eight months respectively, while Nika Gvaramia, another leader of Ahali, was sentenced a night after Khoshtaria’s decision to end the strike.
Other opposition groups were also affected by the wave of arrests. Lelo chairs Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze were jailed for eight months each, while Strategy Aghmashenebeli’s Giorgi Vashadze was sentenced to seven months.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
