Parliamentary elections are being held tomorrow in Georgia, where the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party is seeking a fourth term in office. Moscow denies allegations of influencing the elections.
Georgia, a country in the South Caucasus, goes to the polls tomorrow.
The parliamentary elections will pit a government seen as drawing increasingly closer to Russia against an opposition that advocates integration with the West.
Moscow denies allegations of influencing the elections. “We are not trying to influence the elections in any way. The West is trying to twist Georgia’s wrist,” the Kremlin said in a statement today.
The ruling party, Georgian Dream, is seeking a fourth term in office. Opposition supporters often refer to the ruling party as the “Russian Dream.”
They accuse its founder, billionaire former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, of sympathy for Georgia’s larger northern neighbor and former imperial master.
The Georgian Dream party accuses what it calls the “radical opposition” of being proxies for former president Mikael Saakashvili, who was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of power, and of being backed by Western intelligence agencies.
FOREIGN AGENTS LAW
Georgia was granted European Union candidate status last year, but relations have deteriorated rapidly since Georgian Dream passed a “foreign agents” law in May that critics say is a sign of a shift toward Moscow.
Tbilisi’s main Western allies responded by imposing sanctions on senior Georgian officials, withdrawing tens of millions of dollars in aid and freezing long-running security and defense dialogues with Tbilisi.
Opinion polls show Georgian Dream remains the country’s most popular party, but it has lost ground since 2020, when it won almost 50 percent of the vote and a narrow parliamentary majority.
