Georgians are going to the polls to resolve whether or not to finish 12 years of more and more authoritarian rule, in an election that can resolve their future path in the direction of the European Union.
Georgia borders Russia and the governing Georgian Dream social gathering is accused by the opposition of shifting away from the West and again into Russia’s orbit. The EU has frozen Georgia’s EU bid due to “democratic backsliding”.
“I voted for a brand new Georgia,” mentioned pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili.
Saturday’s vote has been described as probably the most essential since Georgians backed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. There have been reviews of scuffles and vote violations as tempers flared at polling stations.
About 3.5 million Georgians are eligible to vote till 16:00 GMT on this high-stakes election that the opposition is asking a selection between Europe or Russia, however which the federal government frames as a matter of peace or warfare.
Georgian Dream is broadly anticipated to return first, however 4 opposition teams consider they’ll mix forces to take away it from energy and revive Georgia’s EU course of.
4 out of each 5 voters are mentioned to again becoming a member of the EU on this South Caucasus state, which fought a five-day warfare with Russia in 2008.
It was solely final December that the EU made Georgia a candidate. However that course of was halted after the federal government handed a Russia-style regulation that requires teams to register as “pursuing the pursuits of a international energy” in the event that they obtain 20% of funding from overseas.
Politics right here has turn into more and more bitterly polarised, as Georgian Dream, below the guiding power of Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, seeks a fourth time period of energy.
If Ivanishvili’s social gathering wins a sufficiently big majority, he has vowed to ban opposition events, notably the most important, the United Nationwide Motion.
Georgian Dream, often known as GD, is ready to win a couple of third of the vote based on opinion polls, though they’re broadly seen as unreliable. If GD is to be unseated, all 4 of the principle opposition teams should win upwards of 5% of the vote to qualify for the 150-seat parliament.
Ivanishvili’s rhetoric has turn into more and more anti-Western and, after voting in Tbilisi, he informed reporters that Georgians had a easy selection of both a authorities that served them, or an opposition of “international brokers, who will perform solely the orders of a international nation”.
President Zourabichvili has been outspoken in her backing for a broad opposition coalition authorities to finish “one-party rule in Georgia”. As she voted she mentioned there could be folks “who’re victorious, however no-one will lose”.
She has agreed a constitution with the 4 massive teams in order that in the event that they win, a technocrat authorities will fill the speedy vacuum. It will then reverse legal guidelines thought-about dangerous to Georgia’s path to the EU and transfer to snap elections.
Tina Bokuchava, who’s chair of the most important opposition social gathering, United Nationwide Motion, insists all credible polls put the opposition forward.
However whereas Georgian Dream tells voters they’re nonetheless on the right track to affix the EU, it has additionally warned them an opposition victory will set off warfare with Russia.
Social gathering billboards present cut up photos of devastated cities in Ukraine alongside tranquil Georgia, with the slogan: “No to warfare! Select peace.”
GD claims the opposition will assist the West open a brand new entrance in Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, whereas Georgian Dream will preserve the peace with its Russian neighbour, which nonetheless occupies 20% of its territory after the 2008 warfare.
Though the governing social gathering’s declare is unfounded and its billboards have been broadly condemned, its message seems to have gotten by.
In Kaspi, an industrial city to the north-west of Tbilisi, one lady aged 41 informed the BBC: “I do not like Georgian Dream, however I hate the [opposition United] Nationwide Motion – and at the least we’ll be at peace.”
One other lady known as Lali, 68, mentioned the opposition would possibly deliver Europe nearer, however they might deliver warfare too.
Election observers have reported a variety of violations at polling stations, together with poll stuffing in Marneuli, south of Tbilisi, and intimidation of voters elsewhere.
The Worldwide Society for Truthful Elections and Democracy mentioned observers had reported violations at 9.1% of polling stations. On the eve of the vote it mentioned folks’s ID playing cards had been seized, and pointed to Russian-sponsored disinformation operations.
The BBC spoke to at least one voter, Aleksandre, in a village north-west of the capital who mentioned he had been threatened by an area GD man with shedding his job if he didn’t signal as much as vote for Georgian Dream: “I am a bit frightened of his risk however what can I do?”
Georgian Dream maintains it has made elections extra clear, with a brand new digital system for vote counting.
“For 12 years now we have an opposition that questions the legitimacy of Georgia’s authorities continuously. And that is completely not a standard scenario,” says Maka Bochorishvili, GD’s head of the parliament’s EU integration committee.
Critics say in some locations there’s a real worry that the vote just isn’t actually secret.
“All this hypothesis about forcing folks to vote for sure political events – on the finish of the day you are alone and casting your vote, and digital machines are counting that vote,” mentioned Bochorishvili.
Not removed from the centre of Tbilisi, Vano Chkhikvadze factors to graffiti daubed in pink on the partitions and floor exterior his workplace on the Civil Society Basis.
After the “international affect” regulation was handed, within the face of mass protests within the centre of Tbilisi and different massive cities, he says he was personally labelled by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze as a state traitor.
“We had been getting cellphone calls in the course of the evening. Our youngsters even had been getting cellphone calls. They had been threatened.”
Forward of the vote, the EU warned that Georgian Dream’s actions “sign a shift in the direction of authoritarianism”.
Whoever wins, the loser is unlikely to just accept defeat simply.