ENEMY FROM WITHIN

Georgian ruling party founder vows to ban opposition at final pre-election rally

Lucy Papachristou and Felix Light
Wed, October 23, 2024 



Georgian ruling party stages final rally before general election

By Lucy Papachristou and Felix Light

TBILISI (Reuters) - The founder of Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, doubled down on Wednesday on a pledge to ban opposition parties should his party clinch victory in a crucial parliamentary election this weekend.

If it wins a majority in parliament, Georgian Dream will


make opposition parties "answer with the full rigour of the law for the war crimes committed against the population of Georgia," Ivanishvili told a large pro-government rally in Tbilisi's central square. He did not specify what crimes they had committed.

Although rarely seen in public, the billionaire and one-time prime minister is widely viewed as the main powerbroker in the South Caucasus country of some 3.7 million.

Many thousands flooded down Tbilisi's main avenue and onto the central Freedom Square on Wednesday, although the crowd began to noticeably thin as Ivanishvili spoke. He addressed his supporters from behind bulletproof glass.

A senior Georgian Dream MP said before the rally on Wednesday that the party would organise transportation to the rally for a "significant" number of attendees, according to the Interpress news agency.

"I have been a supporter of Georgian Dream since the day it was founded," said Ramaz Giorgadze, who said he had come from the town of Tkibuli, some 150 miles (240 km) west of the capital.

"Thank God that he sent us such a man as Bidzina Ivanishvili," he said, praising the former prime minister's investments in several western Georgian towns.

Following Ivanishvili's speech, his eldest son, Bera, a rapper, performed his 2011 song "Georgian Dream," for which the party was originally named.

Ivanishvili issued his rallying cry three days before Georgians head to the polls in a parliamentary election that has come to be viewed as a test of whether the country returns to Russia's orbit or maintains its pro-Western orientation.

Days earlier, President Salome Zourabichvili - a fierce Georgian Dream critic - delivered a strong pro-EU message to a thousands-strong crowd of opposition supporters gathered in the same square.

Georgia was granted European Union candidate status last year, but relations have deteriorated rapidly since Georgian Dream passed a law on "foreign agents" in May that critics say is a sign it is tilting towards Moscow.

Tbilisi's main Western allies have responded by levying sanctions on top Georgian officials, withdrawing tens of millions of dollars in aid and freezing long-standing security and defence dialogues with Tbilisi.

Ivanishvili has cast Saturday's election as an existential fight to prevent a "Global War Party" in the West from pushing Tbilisi into direct conflict with Moscow - conspiracy theories on which he doubled down in an interview with Georgian television earlier this week.

In the winding 80-minute interview aired on Monday, Ivanishvili accused several opposition candidates of fomenting revolution and chaos in Georgia ahead of the elections.

He also assailed what he called "LGBT propaganda", claiming that in the West, parents force their children to undergo gender affirmation surgeries and "men's milk" is viewed as "the same as women's". A bill significantly curbing LGBT rights was signed into law in Georgia earlier this month.

Opinion polls show Georgian Dream remains the country's most popular party, though it has lost ground since 2020, when it won almost 50% of the vote and a narrow parliamentary majority.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou and Felix Light in Tbilisi; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Marguerita Choy)


Factbox-What's at stake in Georgia's election on Saturday?

Felix Light
Fri, October 25, 2024

A member of an electoral commission checks a ballot box at a polling station in Tbilisi


By Felix Light

TBILISI (Reuters) - The South Caucasus country of Georgia holds a parliamentary election on Saturday that pits a government seen as leaning increasingly towards Russia against an opposition that champions integration with the West.

Here's what to look out for.

HIGH STAKES POLLS

* The ruling party, Georgian Dream, is seeking a fourth term in office.

* A mountainous country of around 3 million people between Russia and Turkey, Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has followed broadly pro-Western policies ever since.

* Many Georgians dislike Russia, which ruled the country for around 200 years and backs two rebel regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, that broke away from Tbilisi's control in the 1990s. Russia defeated Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.

RUSSIA VS WEST

* Georgian Dream has in the last two years shifted towards pro-Russian rhetoric, accusing Western countries of seeking to drag Georgia into war with Russia. It has also deepened ties with China.

* The party is dominated by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister who is Georgia's richest man and is generally regarded as its most powerful person.

* Opinion polls show that Georgians are broadly supportive of joining the EU and NATO, but are also keen to avoid conflict with Russia, and deeply conservative on issues such as LGBT rights.

* Georgian Dream has campaigned on keeping Georgia out of the war in Ukraine.

* The election comes days after Moldovans narrowly approved EU accession, in a vote Moldovan authorities said was marred by Russia-backed meddling.

AUTHORITARIANISM AND PROTESTS

* Georgian Dream has passed a series of hotly contested bills, including a law requiring groups that receive funds from abroad to register as "foreign agents".

* Opponents staged mass demonstrations, describing the legislation as authoritarian and inspired by similar laws used to curb dissent in Russia.

* The bill caused a crisis in relations with the West, with the U.S. sanctioning several Georgians for human rights abuses and threatening to end aid to Tbilisi.

* Other legislation has clamped down on gay rights. Opponents say this also borrows from repressive laws in Russia.

SOURING ON THE WEST

* The European Union, which gave Georgia membership candidate status last December, has said Tbilisi's application is now frozen, and threatened to suspend visa-free travel for Georgians if this election is not free and fair.

* Georgian Dream's Ivanishvili has made overtures to Moscow, including considering an apology for Georgia's role in the brief 2008 war against Russia, even as his bloc says it still wants to join the EU and NATO.

* There is little reliable opinion polling. Surveys by pro-opposition media outlets show Georgian Dream losing its majority, while data from pro-government pollsters predicts the ruling bloc's strongest ever performance.

* Georgia's opposition parties are deeply divided, and have been unable to come to an agreement to contest the election together but hope to deprive Georgian Dream of a majority and form a coalition administration in its place.

(Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Gareth Jones)


Voters at loggerheads ahead of Georgia's 'front line' election

Fri, October 25, 2024 

Georgian ruling party stages final rally before general election


By Felix Light

TBILISI (Reuters) - Nana Malashkhia never planned to get into politics.

But the 48-year-old former civil servant shot to fame in Georgia during the 2023 protests against a law on so-called "foreign agents" after she was filmed waving a European Union flag whilst being blasted by a police water cannon.

The video made her an icon for opposition-supporting Georgians who worry that the foreign agent law will sabotage the country's chances of joining the European Union, and want to see its authors in the ruling Georgian Dream party voted out of office.

Now, having left her job at the Tbilisi mayor's office to dedicate herself to politics, Malashkhia is at the centre of a high-stakes election on Saturday as the top candidate for the Coalition for Change, one of the country's four main opposition parties.

"I am the sort of person who doesn't like publicity. But when I decided to enter politics, I got out of my comfort zone. Because I understood that this election is the front line," she told Reuters.

By contrast, 23-year-old Sandro Dvalishvili, a law graduate and Georgian Dream activist, said he believes that some anti-government protesters have been hoodwinked into rallying for causes they do not fully grasp.

"People of my age especially are easily influenced by others," he said. "And that's why the majority of those who went to protests didn’t know why they were there."

Georgia's politics have long been deeply polarised, with most major media outlets either explicitly pro-government or pro-opposition.

Opposition supporters often dub the ruling party "Russian Dream", accusing its founder, billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, of harbouring sympathy for Georgia's vast northern neighbour and former imperial overlord.

Meanwhile, Georgian Dream accuses what it calls the "radical opposition" of being proxies for divisive former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power, and of being sponsored by Western intelligence agencies.

During this campaign, Georgian Dream officials have repeatedly suggested they will ban opposition parties if they are returned to government.

Occasionally, the furious rhetoric tips over into violence. In April, an opposition member of parliament punched a Georgian Dream lawmaker in the face in parliament during a hearing on the foreign agents law, earning a beating in return.

On both sides, activists see this election as existential, with Georgia's democratic future, or its peace and stability at risk.

But above all, the shadow of geopolitics hangs over the election.

Critics at home and abroad have accused Georgian Dream of seeking to restore ties with Russia, which polls show most Georgians dislike, while deliberately tanking its chances of EU membership.

"Right now, what we have is a referendum. We are choosing between Europe and Russia," Malashkhia said.

For Malashkhia, EU membership is key to protecting Georgian sovereignty from Moscow, which ruled the country for 200 years, and continues to back separatists in two breakaway Georgian regions.

She said: "We can’t change our geography. Russia will always be next door. And that's exactly why we need to be with strong allies."

"And those strong allies are in the European Union."

But Sandro Dvalishvili, who outside politics also works as an actor, said that he feared that a victorious opposition's anti-Russian views could drag the country into war.

In 2008, Georgia lost a five-day war with Russia over the rebel province of South Ossetia, a defeat still raw today.

Georgian Dream has placed keeping the peace with Russia at the heart of its campaign. Around Tbilisi, billboards show pristine Georgian cities alongside devastated Ukrainian ones, above a caption reading "No to war! Choose peace".

Dvalishvili said: "Right now, some people don’t understand the danger they might face if we’re defeated."

"If it turns out that we don’t win, for me that’ll be very bad. Because I don’t see another force that will bring peace and stability to our country".

(Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Georgia prepares for a bitterly divided election which could determine its future in Europe

Euronews
Thu, October 24, 2024 at 9:51 p.m. MDT·1 min read


Georgia is heading to the polls on Saturday in a parliamentary election many citizens believe will be the most crucial vote of their lifetimes.

The election will pit a coalition of opposition parties against the ruling ‘Georgian Dream’ which many fear is dragging the nation towards authoritarianism and away from the European Union.

80% of Georgians favour joining the EU, according to polls, and the constitution demands leaders pursue membership of the EU and NATO.

Brussels put Georgia’s bid for entry to the EU on hold indefinitely in August after the ruling government passed a ‘Russian law’ cracking down on freedom of speech earlier this year.

Manu Georgians fear that if the ‘Georgian Dream’ party are re-elected, hopes of joining the EU could be permanently extinguished.

‘Georgian Dream’ argue it needed to curb harmful foreign actors trying to destabilize the country, but journalists and activists say it's true goal is to stigmatize them and restrict debate before the election.

Tens of thousands of Georgians marched on Sunday ahead of the election viewed as make-or-break for the chance to join the EU.

As well as the EU freezing membership talks, the U.K. suspended its security dialogue with Georgia and cancelled other defence talks, concerned about threats to democracy.