Georgians have gone to the polls to choose the 150 seats of parliament in an election widely seen as a choice between the country's European path and a drift back toward Russia's orbit.
The stakes are unusually high because the EU has already frozen Georgia's membership bid over what it calls democratic backsliding. The governing Georgian Dream party says it is protecting peace and stability, while the opposition says the government is moving away from the West and toward Moscow. President Salome Zourabichvili, who supports a pro-Western shift, has framed the vote as a chance for a new Georgia after years of increasingly authoritarian rule.
About 3.5 million people are eligible to vote, and the contest has been bitterly polarized. Georgian Dream is expected to finish first, but opposition groups believe they can combine enough support to deny the ruling party a comfortable majority. The government has warned that an opposition victory would bring war with Russia, using billboards that contrast shattered Ukrainian cities with peaceful Georgian scenes. Critics say the message is misleading and fear-based, but it appears to have had an effect on some voters.
The campaign has also been marked by complaints about pressure and violations. Observers reported ballot stuffing and a physical attack on an opposition figure in Marneuli. The election monitor International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy said nearly one in 10 of its observers had reported some form of violation. In the days before the vote, the group also said ID cards had been seized and pointed to Russian-sponsored disinformation.
At the same time, Georgian Dream insists the election is being run more transparently than before thanks to electronic counting systems. Party figures argue that the opposition habitually questions the legitimacy of the government and that the real problem is the refusal of rivals to accept results. That dispute matters because it means the aftermath of the vote is unlikely to be peaceful or straightforward, whoever comes out ahead.
The deeper issue is the country's identity. Georgia fought a short war with Russia in 2008 and still has territory occupied by Moscow. Four out of five voters are said to support joining the EU, yet the government passed a foreign influence law that has been widely seen as a break with that ambition. The result is an election where every side is claiming to defend national sovereignty, but each is imagining a different future for the state.
Whatever the official result, the aftermath is likely to be disputed. Georgian Dream has warned that the opposition would drag the country into conflict, while its rivals say the government is using fear to hold power and derail the EU path. The vote therefore functions not only as a choice of parties but also as a referendum on whether Georgia's political system can still deliver a result both sides accept. With trust this low, even a routine count could become a national confrontation.
In that sense, the vote is also a contest over whether election institutions still command enough trust to settle disputes without street pressure.
