Tbilisi (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Georgians are voting in a critical parliamentary election that will decide the country’s path towards EU membership.
Voters in Georgia are heading to the polls on 26 Oct 2024 in a parliamentary election that has been depicted as the most pivotal since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and will determine whether Georgia moves away from its long-held Western alignment toward firmer economic and political relations with the Kremlin.
How will Georgia’s election shape its eu aspirations?
Voters will determine whether the Georgian Dream party, which has held Parliament and the government since 2012, books another four-year term. Georgian Dream led by Moscow-friendly billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, is displaying itself as a “party of peace,” strongly suggesting that if the opposition acquires control, it would pull Georgia into a fight with Russia.
The opposition and liberal part of Georgian society demonstrate the vote as part of the country’s long-running tug-of-war between aligning with the West and gliding back into Moscow’s orbit — a selection between democracy and a form of authoritarianism.
Will anti-west sentiment impact Georgia’s EU membership bid?
The purpose of joining the European Union has for years been consecrated in Georgia’s constitution, and polls consistently indicate that around 80 per cent of the population supports E.U. accession. The anti-West pivot and democratic backsliding pushed by controversial laws caused by the Georgian Dream in the run-up started the organization to freeze the process.
The so-called “foreign agent law” passed earlier this year mandates nongovernmental groups and independent media platforms to register as “agents of foreign influence.” The bill, which flashed mass protests across Georgia, is in many ways a replica of a Russian law that has been used to oppress political dissent.
The election is carried out under a new proportional electoral procedure in which parties have to reach a 5 per cent threshold to grab seats in Parliament. Seats in the 150-member Parliament will be split among qualifying parties based on the balance of the votes they receive. Georgian Dream has established an ambitious goal of reaching a supermajority of 113 seats, which would bring its purpose of establishing a one-party state closer.
