Last Saturday, Georgians went to the polls in a critical parliamentary election that President Salome Zourabichvili described as a referendum on the country’s European future.
It is a future that Georgians have fervently supported through countless rallies and protests in recent years against the pro-Kremlin drift of the current ruling party, Georgian Dream (GD).
This election, the first conducted under a fully proportional system, raised hopes of a multi-party government. Yet, instead of marking a turning point, GD claimed a sweeping 54 % of the vote, securing 89 out of 150 seats in parliament, thus clinging onto majority control for the fourth consecutive term since 2012.
As noted by election observation missions, including OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), serious irregularities were observed well before and on election day.