Georgian Dream Presents Election Program

The ruling Georgian Dream party unveiled its election program during a two-hour-long presentation at the Expo Georgia exhibition center in Tbilisi on October 1. The representatives of legislative and executive authorities, as well as Bidzina Ivanishvili, the GD chairman, attended the presentation, which coincided with the eighth anniversary of the GD’s coming to power.

Speaking about the key priorities of the Georgian Dream’s election program, MP Irakli Kobakhidze, the party’s chief of the election campaign, stated that executive and legislative authorities, representatives of local self-government bodies, and “highly skilled experts” participated in developing the program.  

MP Kobakhidze affirmed that the party election program is focused on two major problems – Russian occupation and poverty inherited by the Georgian Dream government. He named the “restoration of territorial integrity by peaceful efforts, reconciliation with the Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers, and overcoming poverty” as key objectives of the Georgian Dream party.  

“The purpose of our election program is to implement such reforms by effective and attentive authorities that will further strengthen democracy, peace and security and will ensure rapid economic growth, raise the level of welfare, improve social conditions of citizens and help our country gain a worthy place in the international community,” Kobakhidze underlined.  

He named Georgia’s accession to the European Union as the means for achieving these goals, stating that “with the package of achievements envisaged by our election program, Georgia will present an official application for membership of the European Union in 2024.”  

Following MP Kobakhidze, party chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili addressed the audience with his 40-minute address, one-third of which he devoted to to criticizing the former ruling party of the United National Movement. Ivanishvili reminded the international community “what a despotic and misanthropic government Georgian people had to live under until October 1, 2012.”   

The ruling party chairman also spoke of UNM administration’s shortcomings in the judiciary, human rights abuses, business oppression, elite corruption, and once again accused the former ruling party of losing 20% of the country’s territories to Russia.

Ivanishvili then elaborated on his party’s achievements, stressing that the “Georgian Dream has turned the citizen into the main pillar of the State.”   

Among the Georgian Dream’s achievements, Ivanishvili listed the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, and the launch of the visa free regime with the EU/Schengen area. The ruling party benefactor also mentioned the U.S. bipartisan Georgia Support Act as an example of the ruling party’s success. 

Ivanishvili noted that despite the Russian occupation, the Georgian Dream government “manages to maintain peace through rational and pragmatic approaches,” adding that not a single predecessor could do so.  

The party chairman also accused the UNM of trying to undermine the Georgian Dream’s reputation and expressed confidence in his party’s victory in the October 31 parliamentary elections. “We will definitely win together again for the attainment of Georgia’s success,” Ivanishvili asserted.

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