Georgia is voting in an election seen as a stark choice between Russia and the West

By Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgians are voting on Saturday in parliamentary elections described by both sides as an existential battle that will determine whether the country integrates closely with the West or leans toward Moscow.

The vote pits the ruling Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, with four main blocs representing the pro-Western opposition. About 3.5 million Georgians are eligible to vote.

Georgia, which lost parts of its territory to Russian-backed separatists in the 1990s and was defeated in a brief Russian invasion in 2008, was for decades one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the Soviet Union .

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Georgian Dream has moved the country decisively back into Moscow’s orbit, accusing the West of trying to lure it into war. The opposition calls the change a betrayal of Georgia’s European future.

Media sympathetic to the opposing sides have published rival polls, with pro-opposition broadcasters predicting Georgian Dream will lose its majority and those supporting the ruling party predicting a landslide victory with its best broadcast yet.

Although all sides say there are hopes for a peaceful vote, the country has had a volatile political history since the breakup of the Soviet Union, with several popular uprisings and episodes of civil unrest.

Authorities have used force to stage demonstrations this year against a law requiring groups receiving foreign funding to register as foreign agents, which the opposition and the West have called a Russian-inspired measure to stifle dissent.

“THE GLOBAL WAR PARTY”

The reclusive billionaire founder of the Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, cast Saturday’s election as an existential battle to prevent what he calls the West’s “Global War Party” from pushing Tbilisi into direct conflict with Moscow.

“Right now, some people don’t understand the danger they might face if we are defeated. But we will do our best to win and show people the right way,” Georgian Dream activist Sandro Dvalishvili told Reuters.

Georgian Dream says its goal is to get three-quarters of the seats in parliament to introduce a constitutional ban on the main opposition party, the United National Movement.

Opposition parties and President Salome Zourabichvili, a critic of the government whose powers are largely ceremonial, accuse Georgian Dream of buying votes and intimidating voters, which the ruling party denies.

Opposition activists say only a close alliance with the West, including EU membership, would protect Georgia from Russia.

“The hunger of Russian imperialism knows no bounds. And that’s why we need strong allies. And those strong allies are in the European Union,” said Nana Malashkhia, a former civil servant who became famous last year after being filmed waving a flag EU while being blasted with a police water cannon at a protest. Now he is running for parliament.

The European Union granted Georgia candidate membership status last year but suspended its application in response to what it says is a rollback on democracy under the Georgian Dream.

The four main opposition parties are aiming to form a coalition government to remove Georgian Dream from power and put Georgia back on track to join the EU.

“I am very confident that tomorrow’s vote will show that the Georgian people choose European prosperity over international isolation,” United National Movement leader Tina Bokuchava said on Friday.

(Reporting by Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Peter Graff)