On October 30, the Georgian Institute of Politics hosted a REUNIR webinar, “Reflecting Georgia’s Pivotal Elections: What’s Next?“
The citizens of Georgia voted in the highly contested parliamentary elections on October 26, 2024. Despite the broad dissatisfaction with the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party’s political decisions that derailed Georgia from its European track, and numerous complaints from local and international observers, the declared election results favoured the GD by 54%.
Dubbed a “referendum” by both the opposition and the ruling party, this election will have a lasting impact on the country’s democracy and foreign policy. While polarisation characterised Georgia’s political landscape in the past, the stakes were higher in this vote. The growing authoritarian tendencies of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party now threaten to snuff out the remainder of the nation’s democratic system and its aspirations for Euro-Atlantic integration. The GD’s pre-election campaign featured a call to ban opposition parties and attacks against independent media and civil society.
Moderated by Renata Skardžiūtė-Kereselidze, deputy director of the Georgian Institute of Politics, the webinar featured a lineup of long-time observers of Georgian politics: Bidzina Lebanidze (Georgian Institute of Politics), Julie George (Queens College), Stefan Meister (German Council on Foreign Relations), and Nona Mikhelidze (Istituto Affari Internazionali).
The event was organized under the REUNIR Project. REUNIR project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Grant Agreement nº 101132446.
