(26 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tbilisi, Georgia – 26 October 2024
1. Various of poll station workers emptying ballot boxes
2. Stack of ballots
3. Various of poll station workers counting ballots
STORYLINE:
Polls closed in Georgia Saturday after an election many citizens saw as a make-or-break vote on the opportunity to join the European Union.
Competing exit polls meant the outcome of the vote was still unclear immediately after voting ended but all polls suggested the ruling party Georgian Dream would come first. That does not mean it will be able to form a government, as multiple opposition parties have previously said they would work together to form a coalition.
Some Georgians complained of intimidation and being pressured to vote for Georgian Dream, while the opposition accused the party of carrying out a “hybrid war” against its citizens.
The biggest opposition party, United National Movement, said its headquarters came under attack on polling day.
The pre-election campaign in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people which borders Russia was dominated by foreign policy and marked by a bitter fight for votes and allegations of a smear campaign.
The governing and opposition parties told voters they would pursue EU membership even though laws passed by Georgian Dream have put that hope on hold.
The outcome of the election will determine whether Georgia gets back on track to EU membership or embraces authoritarianism and falls into Russia’s orbit.
Many believed the election was the most crucial vote since Georgia gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili described it as an “existential election.”
AP video shot by Kostya Manenkov
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