Georgia Set for Tense Elections As Voters Choose Between Russia and EU.
Georgia’s parliamentary elections have been framed as an existential moment for democracy by activists who want to see the pro-Russian Georgian Dream ousted from power.
“You can see these all over Tbilisi,” says Ana Tavadze, pointing to the blue and yellow European flag.
The 27-year-old activist has been campaigning for three different organisations in the run-up to Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday.
“This election is an existential moment in Georgia’s history,” she said, reflecting on Georgians’ chance to shape the country’s future in the EU — or outside it.
When polls open on Saturday, millions of Georgians at home and abroad will vote in an election that President Salome Zourabichvili has framed as a “referendum” on the country’s choice between Europe and Russia.
The country’s ruling Georgia Dream party will face four main opposition parties: United National Movement, Strong Georgia, Coalition for Change and Gakharia for Georgia.
All have signed the Georgian Charter, a call to action from Zourabichvili. In it, she asks the four parties to help remove Georgian Dream from power by blocking it from forming a coalition.
Critics say Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2012, has lost the people’s trust thanks to the controversial “foreign agents” bill, also known as the “Russian law”, which sparked mass protests this year and froze Georgia’s EU accession process.
Founded and led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the party has proposed other legislation that the opposition says mimics laws introduced in Russia — including a recently passed bill that its detractors say severely restricts the LGTBQ+ community.
Georgian Dream has rejected the claims, stating it can guarantee peace with neighbouring Russia via pragmatic policies and describes the current elections as a choice between “peace and war”.
Moscow currently occupies 20% of the country’s territory in the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, following an invasion in 2008 that Georgian Dream says their opposition risks repeating.
Ivanishili and the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, have both promised to reset relations with the EU, arguing Georgia should join the bloc on its own terms. The party say they are on course to join the EU by 2030.
“We are clearly pro-European as a government, and we have evidenced it by our actions,” Kobakhidze told euronews.
“You know that we are a Christian nation and Europe was always associated with Christianity. It was defending it, protecting Christianity for Georgia. So that’s why Europe was always a kind of natural choice for Georgia and for Georgians,” he explained.
“And that is one of the, or the strongest reason, why we want to be a fully-fledged member of the European family.”
What do predictions say?
Opinion polls have so far given contradictory results, with several of them commissioned by political parties.
A poll by UK market research firm Savanta on Thursday puts Georgian Dream in the lead, but short of a majority, with 35% and Coalition for Change second at 19%.
Coalition for Change’s Marika Mikiashvili said although she was happy to see her party in second place, unseating Georgian Dream remains the priority.
“Right now, what we are focusing on is a coalition government that will deliver overall change and open accession talks with the European Union,” Mikiashvili told Euronews.
“It’s important that the Coalition for Change, a party that is supported by the youth, gets ahead, but forming a coalition government focused on democracy is the priority.”
Mikiashvili said her party would aim to hold snap elections once the key reforms are made to reopen discussions with the EU, in line with the Georgian Charter.
The biggest party, United National Movement, currently polling at third place with 16% previously oversaw a controversial nine years in power. Mikiashvili says her party would be willing to enter a coalition with them in order to immediately remove Georgian Dream from power.
euronews.com
