FT: Georgian president says pro-Russia ruling party ‘rigging’ election

Following the passage of the controversial foreign agents law by the Georgian Dream coalition led by the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, there are increasing concerns that the next elections in Georgia will be neither free nor fair. These concerns have been expressed at the highest levels, including by the pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili, who issued a dire warning for citizens of the country. Her comments were covered in the Financial Times – excerpt below.

The October 26 parliamentary vote is seen by many in the opposition as the most important since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 — a watershed moment that will determine whether their country becomes a sovereign democracy integrated with the west or falls back into autocracy and Russia’s orbit. Russian forces still occupy two Georgian breakaway regions — Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Led by Bidzina Ivanishvili, an oligarch who made his fortune in Russia, Georgian Dream is pressing state employees to vote for it, attacks opposition activists, threatens journalists and makes it hard for citizens abroad to cast their votes, the president said.

GD was not seeking to win “by traditional means”, Zourabichvili said. “So the means of winning the election [by GD] are rigging the elections. That has started.”

Zourabichvili was elected head of state in 2018 with GD’s support but has since become a fierce critic of its anti-democratic methods and for jeopardising Georgia’s push to join the EU. Georgians overwhelmingly support EU membership and state institutions are committed to achieving it under the constitution.

The country was last year granted EU candidate status, subject to conditions, but is now trailing Ukraine and Moldova, which have opened accession talks. GD has said it backs EU membership and claims it has done more than previous governments to advance Georgia’s application.

However, the EU froze the accession process after the government pushed through a law on NGO transparency that the Georgian opposition and western capitals fear will be used to intimidate and crush civil society, as in Russia.