‘Like Life in a Parallel Universe’: Some Fear Georgia’s Controversial Election Could Lead to Political Crisis

In the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, thousands of people gathered outside the parliament building on Monday, waving EU flags and protesting the results of the country’s parliamentary elections at the weekend.

According to official estimates, the conservative ruling party Georgian Dream, which has been in power for the past 12 years, won 54% of the vote.

But the opposition in Georgia rejects the results, pointing to numerous irregularities — and some fear that the differences could plunge the country into political crisis.

Yulian Bulai, head of the election observation delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, spoke to the press on Sunday.

“The presence of ruling party cameras at polling stations and people in front of polling stations monitoring and possibly controlling voters has led to widespread pressure and party-orchestrated intimidation, as well as a feeling of ‘big brother watching you.’ “as one of our observers described it.”

Cases of such surveillance and intimidation have been reported throughout Georgia.

One video which swept Georgian social networks, shows a group of men breaking into a polling station and blatantly throwing dozens of ballots into the ballot box.

Although such cases were not common, for many Georgians this case became indicative of the entire election.

Olesya Vartanyan, an expert on security and conflict in the South Caucasus, working in Tbilisi, acted as an observer during the elections.

“At the polling station outside, you see a group of men in black, you know, standing there, and then some of them have a list – you can see them actually crossing off the names of people who come.”

Those who did not show up were called from “Georgian Dream” – which she saw them do openly.

Vartanyan noted that people who depend on the state budget — state employees and pensioners — were pressured to vote for them.

“One woman that was there, she said (she was) 92, you know, quite old, and then there was another man that was, he had trouble walking, we had a quick chat and they both said they were scared lose their subsidies.”

On Sunday, the President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili said that the election was stolen.

She also claimed that Russia was involvedcalling it a “Russian special operation” and a new form of “hybrid warfare” being waged against Georgia.

In an interview on monday In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Zurabishvili said that the Georgian people will protest because “it was they who saw their votes stolen, it was they who were driven by force to a regime that will be more like a Russian rather than a European democratic country.”

In the spring, “Georgian Dream” was held twice conflicting laws through parliament.

The first is a Russian-style “foreign agents” law used against Georgian NGOs and civil society, as well as another law that restricts the rights of LGBTQ people in Georgia.

Steve Swerdlow is a human rights lawyer and professor at the University of Southern California.

“These two laws in particular really made it clear how dangerous this party is to the long-term democracy in Georgia.”

Sverdlov said that if Georgian Dream remains in power, more such laws will pass through parliament.

“I think we will continue to see Georgia go down a repressive path as civil society organizations get shut down or forced out of the country — where many young, more liberal-minded people who don’t want to see a Russian-style evolution in their society — may leave Georgia.” .

The latest polls show that the majority of Georgians they want the country to join the European Union and NATO.

Georgian Dream has stated that it also wants further integration with Europe, but in recent years the messages of its leaders have been increasingly anti-Western.

“I believe that the statements that are mainly coming from the “Georgian Dream” are a surrogate of Russia. Which says: “War will come to us, beware, the West is a warmonger.” It’s a mixture of conspiracy theories and anti-Western rhetoric.”

Security expert Vartanyan said that “Georgian Dream” will continue to hold power despite all the accusations of election fraud.

“It’s going to be like living in a parallel universe because you basically have people who don’t want to see you in power, but at the same time you’re going to pretend you’re there. I mean, how long can you go on like this?’