On October 26, Georgians cast their ballots in a pivotal parliamentary election, often described as a referendum on the country’s choice between Russia and Europe.
Pro-Western opposition alliances will seek to challenge the 12-year, increasingly authoritarian rule of Georgian Dream, a party founded and led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. The ruling party has tried to rally support by fear-mongering about war with Russia if the opposition wins, and by exploiting political and social homophobia.
The elections were preceded by months of a growing crackdown on dissent by Georgian Dream, which has vowed to double down on repression if it wins. The government’s anti-democratic moves, coupled with anti-Western propaganda, led the European Union to suspend Georgia’s accession process months after the country secured candidate status.
Key Facts
Main Contenders
Georgians will elect a 150-member legislature in their first fully proportional elections, without runoffs. Only parties that receive 5% of the vote will enter parliament.
To increase their chances of beating the wealthy and powerful Georgian Dream, many opposition groups have formed coalitions to avoid wasting anti-government votes due to the 5% threshold. The alliances most likely to pass the threshold include Unity – to Save Georgia (United National Movement+Strategy Agmashenebeli), Coalition for Change (Ahali+Girchi-More Freedom+Droa), Strong Georgia (Lelo for Georgia, For People, Citizens, Freedom Square), and For Georgia (led by ex-prime minister Giorgi Gakharia).
All four have signed the President’s Georgian Charter, which calls for a year of technocratic government rule to pass EU reforms. The libertarian Girchi party also has kingmaker ambitions, hoping for a few percent of the vote and not ruling out entering into a coalition with either opposition or Georgian Dream. The Alliance of Patriots/Alt-Info will compete for the far-right votes and the Labor Party will also try to grab a share of the opposition support.
The race is expected to be close, with no clear predictions for a winner. Opinion polls show conflicting results, with those commissioned by government-critical TV stations giving the opposition the lead, while those commissioned by pro-government TV stations predict a safe victory for the ruling party.
Election Day
Polls open across Georgia at 8 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. local time. 3,508,294 registered voters are eligible to vote in 3,111 precincts, including 67 overseas, in 42 countries. Of the registered voters, 95,910 are registered abroad, an increase of 45% compared to the 2020 election.
Greater participation of youth is also expected, with 135,922 first-time voters.
This is the first Georgian election to be conducted with predominantly electronic voting, meaning that voters will cast ballots at polling stations using electronic machines that verify and count the votes. About 90% (3,113,747) voters will cast their ballots using this new procedure. Remote and overseas constituencies will use traditional polling procedures.
Over 100 local and more than 60 international observers are registered to monitor what is considered one of the most closely watched elections in independent Georgia. The main local observer missions – International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), and the My Vote coalition, uniting dozens of local civil society organizations – will provide regular updates on the election environment and potential violations on election day and after. Assessments from international missions such as the OSCE/ODIHR are expected the following day.
Various new civic and civil society initiatives have also emerged to protect votes, educate voters, and provide shelter/transportation inside and outside the country for those living far from their polling stations.
Tallying and Results
Ballots in electronic precincts across Georgia will be counted automatically after the polls close, and based on the automatic count, the Central Election Commission is expected to release preliminary results the same day, hours after the polls close at 8 p.m.
The final official results, which will also include precincts that voted by the traditional method, are expected the following morning after all ballots – including those in electronic precincts – have been hand-counted.
ISFED will again be the only watchdog to provide results of Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), a statistical method used to verify the official results. PVT results are also expected to be released on October 27, after official results are known.
(Some TV networks plan to release exit poll results immediately after the polls close at 8 p.m. local time. Civil.ge will add the names of the TV stations and pollsters as they are announced.)
To stay up to date, including on the polling day, follow our Election Live Blog.