BBCGeorgians will go to the polls to decide whether to end 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule in an election that will determine the country’s future path toward the European Union.
Georgia shares a border with Russia, and the ruling Georgian Dream party has come under fire from opponents who want to break away from the West and return to Russia’s orbit. The EU has frozen Georgia’s EU bid because of “democratic backsliding”.
“I voted for a new Georgia,” said pro-Western President Salome Djurabicvili.
Saturday’s vote was described as the most important vote since Georgians supported independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. There were reports of scuffles and voting violations as tempers erupted at polling places.
About 3.5 million Georgians are eligible to vote until 16:00 GMT in the election, which the opposition is calling for a choice between Europe and Russia but the government is framing as a question of peace or war.
Georgian Dream is widely expected to come out first, but four opposition groups believe they can join forces to remove Georgian Dream from power and revive the EU process in Georgia.
In the South Caucasus state, which fought a five-day war with Russia in 2008, four out of five voters support joining the European Union (EU).
It was in December last year that the EU made Georgia a candidate. But that process came to a halt after the government passed a Russian-style law requiring groups to register as “pursuing the interests of foreign powers” if they receive 20% of their funding from abroad.
Politics here have become increasingly polarized, much like the Georgian Dream under the leadership of Georgia’s richest man. Bidzina Ivanishvili seeks fourth term in office.
Matthew Goddard/BBCIf Ivanishvili’s party wins a large enough majority, he has pledged to ban the opposition, especially the largest, the United National Movement.
Georgian Dream, known as GD, is expected to win about a third of the vote, according to opinion polls, despite being widely seen as unreliable. If GD loses seats, all four major opposition parties would need to get more than 5% of the vote to advance to the 150-seat parliament.
Ivanishvili’s rhetoric has become increasingly anti-Western, and after the vote in Tbilisi he told reporters that Georgians could choose between a government that would serve them or “the opposition of foreign agents who would only carry out foreign orders.” nation”.
President Djuravichivili has been explicit in his support for a broad opposition coalition government to end “one-party rule in Georgia.” As she voted, she said there would be “someone who will win, but no one will lose.”
She agreed to a charter with four large groups. So if they win, a technocratic government will fill the immediate vacuum. It will then overturn laws deemed detrimental to Georgia’s EU path and move to early elections.
Tina Bokuchava, head of the largest opposition party, the United National Movement, insists that all reliable polls put the opposition ahead.
But Georgian Dream has warned voters that a victory for the opposition would trigger war with Russia, even as it tells voters it is still in the process of joining the EU.
Party billboards show divided pictures of destroyed Ukrainian cities alongside tranquil Georgia with the slogan “No to war! Choose peace.”
GD argues that the opposition will help the West open a new front in Russia’s war in Ukraine, while Georgian Dream maintains peace with neighboring Russia, which still accounts for 20% of its territory after a 2008 war.
Matthew Goddard/BBCAlthough the ruling party’s claims are baseless and the billboard has been widely criticized, the message appears to have been conveyed.
A 41-year-old woman from Caspian, an industrial city northwest of Tbilisi, told the BBC: [opposition United] A national movement, then at least we will have peace.”
Another woman, Lalli, 68, said the opposition could bring Europe closer together, but it would also bring war.
Election observers reported several violations at polling stations, including physical attacks on ballot-stuffing and opposition politicians in Marneuli, south of Tbilisi.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy found that nearly one in 10 observers reported violations at polling places. It said people’s identification cards were confiscated the day before the vote and pointed to a Russian-sponsored disinformation operation.
The BBC interviewed one voter, Alexandre, from a village northwest of the capital, who said he had been threatened by a local GD man that he would lose his job if he did not vote for Georgian Dream. “I’m a little afraid of his threats, but what should I do?”
Georgian Dream claims the new electronic system for counting votes has made elections more transparent.
“For the past 12 years, we have had an opposition party constantly questioning the legitimacy of the Georgian government. This is by no means a normal situation,” said Maka Bochorishvili, head of GD’s EU integration committee.
Critics say there is a real fear in some quarters that voting may not actually be secret.
“There is all this speculation about forcing people to vote for a particular party. At the end of the day, you vote alone and an electronic machine counts that vote,” Bochorishvili said.
Not far from central Tbilisi, Vano Chkhikvadze points to graffiti painted in red on the walls and floor outside the offices of the Civil Society Foundation.
He said he had been branded a traitor to the country by Prime Minister Irakli Kovacidze as mass protests erupted in Tbilisi and other metropolitan centers following the passage of the ‘foreign influence’ law.
“We got calls in the middle of the night. Even our children got calls. They were getting threats.”
Ahead of the vote, the EU warned that Georgian Dream’s actions “signify a turn toward authoritarianism.”
No matter who wins, the loser will not accept defeat easily.
