Polling stations opened in Georgia this morning for legislative elections crucial to the future of the country, a vote that has the value of a kind of referendum between pro-European opposition groups and the ruling conservative party accused of pro-Russian authoritarianism. Drifting.
The results of the vote, which will take place between 8 am and 8 pm local time, will be closely scrutinized in Brussels, at a time when European leaders fear that Georgia is drifting away from its ambition to join the European Union.
Recent polls suggest the opposition coalition can muster enough votes to defeat Georgian Dream, the party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, which has secretly held the strings of power for a decade.
Pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili, who broke with the government, said in an interview at the beginning of October that it would be “almost a referendum on choosing between Europe or Russia’s return to an ambiguous past.” The head of state, who has limited powers, then condemned the “increasingly openly anti-Western and anti-European” orientation of the Georgian Dream.
This year, “opposition forces, traditionally divided, were able to create an unprecedented united front” against the ruling party, confirms analyst Gila Vasadze from the Center for Strategic Analysis in Georgia. Among the four parties involved is former President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement, the evil movement led by Ivanishvili.
In particular, their program includes wide-ranging electoral, judicial and police reforms.
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