The elections in Georgia show how the opposition and the ruling party

The pro-Western opposition and ruling party were shown as the winners in rival exit polls after Georgia’s closely watched parliamentary election on Saturday, seen as a fundamental choice between Europe’s future or closer ties with Russia.

Four pro-Western opposition groups that agreed to form a coalition received 51.9 percent of the vote, according to the results of an exit poll conducted by a pro-opposition TV channel at the American sociological center Edison Research.

But an exit poll published by a pro-government TV station showed the ruling Georgian Dream party with 56.1 percent of the vote.

Preliminary results were expected late on Saturday. But competing claims emerged after the election, which pro-opposition President Salome Zurabishvili said was marred by violence at some polling stations and allegations of ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.

The ruling Georgian Dream party, which critics accuse of stifling democracy and increasingly tilting the Caucasian country toward Moscow, is projected to win 40.9 percent of the vote, according to an Edison Research poll.

Zurabishvili congratulated the victory of “European Georgia”.

But an exit poll conducted by a pro-government TV channel showed that the ruling Georgian Dream party was ahead of the opposition with 35.2 percent of the vote.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán congratulated “Georgian Dream”, declaring that it won a “convincing victory”.

Brussels warned that the election would determine Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union, and the Kremlin condemned “Western interference” in the election campaign.

“Of course, I voted for Europe. Because I want to live in Europe, not in Russia. So, I voted for change,” said Oleksandr Guldani, an 18-year-old student who voted in Tbilisi.

Analyst Gela Vasadze from the Center for Strategic Analysis of Georgia warned on the eve of the vote that “if the ruling party tries to stay in power regardless of the election results, there is a risk of post-election upheavals.”

Zurabishvili said there were “deeply disturbing incidents of violence” at some polling stations, as well as allegations of ballot-throwing and voter intimidation.

A video showing a fistfight between dozens of unidentified men near a polling station in the suburbs of Tbilisi has gone viral on social media.

Another showed fighting outside the campaign office of the United National Movement (UNM), Georgia’s main opposition force founded in 2001 by jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.

The opposition also released a video of an alleged ballot-throwing incident in the southeastern village of Sadakhlo.

– Anti-Western rhetoric –

Georgian Dream, run by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, said during the campaign that it wanted a super majority to pass a constitutional ban on all major opposition parties.

After the publication of the results of the exit poll, which showed the victory of the government, Ivanishvili congratulated “the party’s success in such a difficult situation.”

“I assure you, our country will achieve great success in the next four years. We will do a lot,” he said.

In power since 2012, the party initially pursued a liberal pro-Western policy. But in the past two years, he has changed course.

His campaign centered on a conspiracy theory about a “global war party” that controls Western institutions and seeks to drag Georgia into the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In a country devastated by Russia’s 2008 invasion, the party offered voters scare stories about the imminent threat of war that only the “Georgian Dream” could avert.

In a recent TV interview, Ivanishvili painted a grotesque image of the West, where “orgies just happen on the streets.”

Georgian Dream’s passage of a controversial “foreign influence” law earlier this year targeting civil society sparked weeks of mass street protests and was criticized as a Kremlin move aimed at stifling dissent.

This move forced Brussels to freeze Georgia’s EU accession process, and Washington imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials.

The ruling party also launched a campaign against sexual minorities. He passed measures banning “LGBTQ propaganda,” voiding same-sex marriages performed abroad, and banning gender reassignment.

The opposition coalition signed a pro-European political platform that outlines far-reaching electoral, judicial and law enforcement reforms.

They agreed to form an interim multi-party government to carry out reforms – if they win enough seats in parliament – before new elections are called.

im/dt/tw