Trouble in Tbilisi: How the EU should respond to Georgia’s drift towards authoritarianism
agv
Thu, 12/05/2024 – 02:18
13 minutes
Explaining the outcome of the election
The parliamentary election in Georgia on 26 October marked another milestone in the dramatic deterioration of the relationship between the government and the EU that resulted in the de facto halting of the accession process in June (1). In the election, the Georgian Dream (GD), a party founded and dominated by the billionaire Bidzina (formerly Boris) Ivanishvili, claimed a fourth consecutive victory. According to the Central Election Commission, the GD received 53.93% of the vote and will have 89 representatives in the 150-seat parliament. It won in every electoral district except Tbilisi and Rustavi. In large swathes of the countryside, it obtained more than 60% of the vote according to official statistics (2).
Data: Caucasus Barometer, 2024
The opposition claims that the GD orchestrated widespread fraud and stole the election. As a result, they have refused to take up their seats in the new parliament, …read more
