TBILISI, Oct 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Georgians voted on Saturday in elections that will determine the fledgling democracy’s European aspirations, amid growing concerns over the ruling party’s pro-Russian drift.
The parliamentary election pits an unprecedented union of pro-Western opposition forces against the ruling Georgian Dream accused of stifling democracy and turning towards Russia.
Brussels has warned that the vote will determine European Union-candidate Tbilisi’s chances of joining the bloc.
Opinion polls indicate opposition parties could get enough votes to form a coalition to supplant Georgian Dream, controlled by powerful billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili — at loggerheads with the ruling party — said after casting her ballot: “Tonight, there will victory for all of Georgia.
“I am confident that this day will determine Georgia’s future, the future for which I personally returned to this country 22 years ago,” said the Paris-born daughter of Georgian emigres who fled to France following Georgia’s annexation by Russia in 1921.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said he was confident Georgian Dream would win a commanding majority in the 150-seat parliament and called for “maximum mobilisation” of supporters.
Tbilisi mayor and Georgian Dream secretary general, Kakha Kaladze, called the opposition “radical forces, doomed to fail” who “will try their utmost to escalate tensions.”
Georgian Dream says it wants to win a supermajority which will allow it to pass a constitutional ban on all major opposition parties.
In power since 2012, the party initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy agenda. But over the last two years the party has reversed course.
Its campaign has centred on a conspiracy theory about a “global war party” that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.
In a country still scarred by Russia’s 2008 invasion, the party has offered voters bogeyman stories about an imminent threat of war, which only Georgian Dream could prevent.
Georgian Dream’s adoption of a controversial “foreign influence” law this spring targeting civil society sparked weeks of mass street protests and was criticised as a Kremlin-style measure to silence dissent.
The move prompted Brussels to freeze Georgia’s EU accession process, while Washington imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials.
The Kremlin on Friday blasted “unprecedented attempts at Western interference” in the vote, accusing it of “trying to twist Tbilisi’s hand” and “dictate terms”.
The latest polls show that the opposition is poised to garner enough ballots to take power.
The potential coalition grouping includes Georgia’s main opposition force, jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) and Akhali, a recently formed party headed by former UNM leaders.
Along with several smaller parties, they have signed up to a pro-European policy platform outlining far-reaching electoral, judicial and law enforcement reforms.
They have agreed to form an interim multi-party government to advance the reforms — if they command enough seats in parliament — before calling fresh elections.
Voting, which started at 0400 GMT, ends at 1600 GMT, with exit polls set to be released on closing in the country of four million. — NNN-AGENCIES
