Georgians are to vote tomorrow in watershed elections, with a union of pro-Western opposition forces facing off against a ruling party accused of democratic backsliding and shifting toward Russia. Brussels has warned the vote would be crucial for the fate of Georgia’s fledgling democracy and its long-held aspiration for EU membership.
Opinion polls indicate opposition parties could get enough votes to form a coalition government to supplant the ruling Georgian Dream party, controlled by powerful billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The current government says it wants to win a supermajority in parliament to allow it to pass a constitutional ban on the pro-Western opposition.
Photo: AFP
“Georgia’s traditionally fractured opposition forces have managed to forge an unprecedented united front against Georgian Dream,” said Gela Vasadze, regional programs director at Georgia’s Strategic Analysis Center.
However, “if the ruling party attempts to stay in power regardless of the election outcome, then there is the risk of post-electoral turmoil,” he added.
In power since 2012, Georgian Dream initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy agenda, but over the past two years the party has reversed course.
Its campaign has centered on a conspiracy theory about a “global war party” that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.
In a country where the scars of Russia’s 2008 invasion remain unhealed, the party has offered voters bogeyman stories about an imminent threat of war, which only Georgian Dream could prevent.
In a recent TV interview, Ivanishvili painted an image of the West where “orgies are taking place right in the streets.”
The party’s passage of a controversial “foreign influence law” this spring, targeting civil society, sparked weeks of mass street protests and was criticised as a Kremlin-style measure to silence dissent.
The move prompted Brussels to freeze Georgia’s EU accession process, while Washington imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials.
Earlier this month, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell cautioned that Georgian Dream’s actions “signal a shift towards authoritarianism.”
The upcoming polls are “a crucial test for democracy in Georgia and its European Union path,” he added.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has vowed to lead Georgia toward EU membership, saying ties with the West would normalize once the Ukraine war ends.
However, the latest polls show that the opposition is poised to garner enough votes to form a coalition government.
The grouping includes Georgia’s main opposition force, jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) and Akhali, a recently formed party headed by former UNM leaders.
Along with several smaller parties, they have signed up to a pro-European policy platform outlining far-reaching electoral, judicial and law enforcement reforms.
They have agreed to form an interim multi-party government to advance the reforms — if they command enough seats in parliament — before calling fresh elections.
A poll conducted by US pollster Edison Research recently showed that 34 percent of decided voters would cast their ballots for Georgian Dream, while the four opposition alliances combined are set to garner 53 percent of the vote.
The elections, held under a proportional party list system, would be monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests. Analysis by London-based think tank Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island (Jhongjian Island, 中建島) on the southwest corner of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), building what might be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery and sophisticated radar system. “By constraining the US ability to operate stealth aircraft, and threaten stealth aircraft, these capabilities in the South China Sea send
HAVANA: Repeated blackouts have left residents of the Cuban capital concerned about food, water supply and the nation’s future, but so far, there have been few protests Maria Elena Cardenas, 76, lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana’s colonial old town. The building has an elegant past, but for the last few days Maria has been cooking with sticks she had found on the street. “You know, we Cubans manage the best we can,” she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city. Cuba’s government has spent the last days attempting to get the island’s national grid functioning after repeated island-wide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food
U-TURN? Trami was moving northwest toward Vietnam yesterday, but high-pressure winds and other factors could force it to turn back toward the Philippines Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least 65 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to scramble for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some on their roofs. However, the onslaught might not be over: State forecasters raised the rare possibility that the storm — the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea. A Philippine provincial police chief yesterday said that 33
PROPAGANDA: The leaflets attacked the South Korean president and first lady with phrases such as: ‘It’s fortunate that President Yoon and his wife have no children’ North Korean propaganda leaflets apparently carried by balloons were found scattered on the streets of the South Korean capital, Seoul, yesterday, including some making personal attacks on the country’s president and first lady. The leaflets attacking South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee found in the capital appear to be the first instance of the North Korean government directly sending anti-South propaganda material across the border. They included graphic messages accusing the Yoon government of failures that had left his people living in despair, and describing the first couple as immoral and mentally unstable. The leaflets included photographs of the
RSS