Courtesy of Eva V.
Georgia’s recent parliamentary elections could fulfill its people’s aspirations for democracy, human rights, and individual freedoms. Or, they could have, had they been fair. On October 26, 2024, the authoritarian, pro-Russian, and anti-Western party “Georgian Dream” secured a majority in Parliament with 53.9% of the vote, defying the 40% predicted by independent exit polls. As the election is coming to an end, footage from polling stations showing a man stuffing bundles of ballots into the box is resurfacing on social media and independent observers are reporting gross violations of the procedures. Georgia’s President, Salome Zourabichvili, declares that she will not recognize the election results, while all opposition parties, without exception, refuse to take their seats in the new Parliament. The election results are clearly rigged, yet “Georgian Dream” managed to secure 90 out of 150 seats in Parliament, enough for them to start the session.
So what does the “Georgian Dream” dream of, so much so that it couldn’t care less about democratic elections?
The Georgian Dream party, led by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, first won a parliamentary majority in the 2012 elections. At that time, the voters’ primary desire was to prevent the United National Movement (UNM) from returning to power. The founder of the UNM, Mikheil Saakashvili, and President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, who initially implemented pro-Western reforms in the country, was later implicated in corruption and the bodily harm of an opposition figure. The Georgian Dream gained initial public support in an atmosphere of antagonism rather than on a strong platform or agenda. At first, the party positioned itself as moderately pro-European, but this was hypocrisy— the longer it was in power, the more conservative populism, increasingly oriented towards the Putin regime, seeped through the mask of democracy and Western values. The attempt to adopt a copy of Russia’s “foreign agent” law, which restricts the rights of non-governmental organizations receiving foreign funding (primarily European and American human rights and educational projects), has revealed the true intentions of the Georgian Dream. The law was massively protested by Georgians in 2023 but was reintroduced and passed in the spring of 2024 despite repeated protests. Media outlets sponsored by the ruling party have increasingly adopted a narrative straight out of the Russian playbook: a focus on “traditional values,” queerphobia, conspiracy theories, and anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. In the summer of 2024, a law banning same-sex marriage, gender reassignment surgery, and gender-affirming therapy was passed.
EU officials have expressed concern over Georgia’s recent democratic backsliding, and the country’s EU accession process has been halted.
Eva, a Wellesley College student, lived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, during the protests that took place from April to June 2024 and attended “all, every single one of them.” Eva explains, “In Georgia, people understand that the country is now at a crossroads: one path leads to a bleak future with Russia marked by war, violence, and the erosion of human rights, while the other leads toward a bright European future grounded in the principles of law, political and civil liberties, and democratic values. Georgians remember the 2008 war [in 2008, Russia invaded Georgia and occupied part of its territory, creating two quasi-states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia – author’s note], and they would never want to be with Russia.”
European leaders cling to hope that Georgia will rediscover its democratic path; the window of opportunity is closing fast, but it’s not yet shut.
After the rigged election, the only way to express one’s choice is through civil protest. Mass demonstrations have been ongoing since October 26th, the day the election results were announced, and even the President has joined them. More and more people are taking to the streets. “This year will decide Georgia’s political destiny once and for long,” Eva concludes.
