About 30 opposition parties in Georgia have adopted a joint declaration on the upcoming October elections at a meeting held in the office of the Labour Party today, EDNews.net reports citing Agenda.ge.

The declaration reads that 'Georgia's democratic opposition agrees that Ivanishvili's oligarchic government poses the greatest challenge to the country and its democratic development'.

Ivanishvili and his party are doing their best to spread nihilism in society, to discredit the entire political process. Under these conditions, our most important task is to strengthen public trust and support for the elections, which is a peaceful way of changing the government, the only right way to enable our society to take firm steps towards a western democratic state", reads the declaration.

The declaration further says the Ivanishvili regime has ‘mobilised a large part of both administrative and financial resources', and state institutions serve the interests of the ruling team instead of the public.

That is why the coordinated work of the democratic opposition is important to protect each vote and eliminate electoral manipulation. The task of the parties will not be to protect the votes of citizens with certain political tastes, but to protect the transparency of the entire electoral process and the choice of each citizen", reads the statement. 

The opposition parties have also agreed to work with international observers to avoid doubts about the legitimacy of the elections.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Georgia on 31 October 2020 to elect the 150 members of parliament.