The stakes are high as voters decide the path in Europe

Georgians will go to the polls to decide whether to end 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule, in an election that will determine their future path towards the European Union.

Georgia borders Russia and the ruling Georgian Dream party is accused by the opposition of moving away from the West and returning to Russia’s orbit. The EU has frozen Georgia’s bid to join the EU because of “democratic regression”.

“I voted for a new Georgia,” said pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili.

Saturday’s vote was seen as the most important since Georgians backed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. There were reports of clashes and election violations as anger flared at points vote.

Some 3.5 million Georgians are eligible to vote until 16:00 GMT in this high-stakes election that the opposition is calling a choice between Europe or Russia, but the government sees it as matters of peace or war.

Georgian Dream is widely expected to come first, but four opposition groups believe they can combine forces to remove it from power and restore Georgia’s EU progress.

Four out of five voters are said to favor joining the EU in the South Caucasus country, which fought a five-day war with Russia in 2008.

Only in December last year did the EU make Georgia a candidate. But that process was halted after the government passed a Russian-style law requiring groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they received 20% of their funding from abroad.

Politics here are becoming increasingly polarized, as the Georgian Dream, under the guidance of Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, seeks a fourth term in power.

If Ivanishvili’s party wins a large enough majority, he will announce a ban on opposition parties, especially the largest party, the United National Movement.

Georgian Dream, or GD, is expected to win around a third of the vote according to opinion polls, although they are widely considered unreliable. If GD has no seats, all four main opposition groups will have to win more than 5% of the vote to qualify for the 150-seat parliament.

Ivanishvili’s rhetoric became increasingly anti-Western and, after voting in Tbilisi, he told reporters that Georgians had a simple choice: either a government that serves them, or an opposition that serves them. “foreign agents who would only carry out the orders of a foreign government.” nation”.

President Zourabichvili has been outspoken in his support for a broad opposition coalition government aimed at ending “one-party rule in Georgia”. When voting, she said there would be “winners, but no losers”.

She agreed to a charter with four major corporations so that if they win, a technocratic government will fill the vacuum immediately. The country will then reverse laws considered harmful to Georgia’s path to joining the EU and move towards early elections.

Tina Bokuchava, president of the largest opposition party, the United National Movement, insisted all reliable polls put the opposition ahead.

But while the Georgian Dream told voters that they were still on track to join the EU, it also warned them that an opposition victory would trigger war with Russia.

The party’s billboards show images of devastated cities in Ukraine next to peaceful Georgia, with the slogan: “No war! Choose peace.”

GD claims the opposition will help the West open a new front in Russia’s war in Ukraine, while Georgian Dream will keep the peace with neighboring Russia, which still holds 20% of Russia’s territory after the war year 2008.

Although the ruling party’s claims are baseless and their billboards have been widely condemned, their message appears to have gotten through.

In Kaspi, an industrial town northwest of Tbilisi, a 41-year-old woman told the BBC: “I don’t like Georgian Dream, but I hate that kind of thing.” [opposition United] National Movement – ​​and at least we will be at peace.”

Another woman named Lali, 68, said the opposition may bring Europe closer but they will also bring war.

Election observers reported several violations at polling stations, including ballot stuffing in Marneuli, south of Tbilisi, and intimidation of voters elsewhere.

The International Association for Fair Elections and Democracy said observers reported violations at 9.1% of polling stations. On the eve of the vote, they said people’s ID cards had been seized and pointed to Russian-sponsored disinformation operations.

The BBC spoke to one voter, Aleksandre, in a village northwest of the capital, who said he was threatened by a local GD man that he would lose his job if he did not register to vote for Georgian Dream : “I’m a bit scared of his threat but what can I do?”

Georgia Dream claims it has made elections more transparent, with a new electronic vote-counting system.

“For 12 years we have had an opposition that has continuously questioned the legitimacy of the Georgian government,” said Maka Bochorishvili, head of the parliament’s EU integration committee, GD. And that is absolutely not a normal situation.”

Critics say there are real concerns in some places that the vote is not truly secret.

“All the speculation about forcing people to vote for certain political parties — at the end of the day, you are alone and voting, and electronic machines are counting those votes,” Bochorishvili said.

Not far from central Tbilisi, Vano Chkhikvadze points to red graffiti painted on the walls and ground outside his office at the Civil Society Organization.

After the “foreign influence” law was passed, in the face of mass protests in central Tbilisi and other major cities, he said that he had personally been branded a traitor by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze state.

“We received many phone calls in the middle of the night. Our children even received many phone calls. They were threatened.”

Ahead of the vote, the EU warned that Georgian Dream’s actions “signal a shift towards authoritarianism”.

Whoever wins, the loser cannot easily accept defeat.