On September 8, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Honorary Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, addressed the crowd during a rally in the southwestern Georgian town of Akhaltsikhe. 

He warned again about the "collective UNM," a term the Georgian Dream uses to describe all pro-Western opposition parties, civil society, and government critics. Ivanishvili accused the "collective UNM" of viewing war not as a disaster but as an opportunity to return to power, even at the cost of "the blood of its own people."

Ivanishvili went on to claim that the "collective UNM" provoked the August 2008 war and is now trying to drag Georgia into Russia’s war against Ukraine by opening a "second front" in Georgia, a move he alleged was "the direct order of their [collective UNM’s] foreign patrons." Ivanishvili portrayed the upcoming October 26 parliamentary elections not as a traditional campaign but as a "fight to protect peace, the sovereignty of our country, our traditions and values." 

He also promised to end foreign attempts to impose "pseudo-liberal values" on Georgia and stressed the need for the ruling party to win the elections in such a "convincing" manner that no one could question the results, thereby putting an end to what he described as the political chaos created by the "collective UNM" and its foreign partners.

Ivanishvili further promised that if Georgian Dream won a constitutional majority, it would lay the groundwork for restoring Georgia's territorial integrity. He also vowed that the Georgian Orthodox Church's role in the country's identity would be reflected in the Constitution, stating that "Orthodox Christianity will be strengthened by the Constitution as a pillar of the Georgian state's identity" while assuring that no other religion would be harmed.