Georgian Dream Party will win — Archil Sikharulidze on Georgian election

In an interview with Alpha News, Georgian political scientist and founder of the Sikha Foundation project Archil Sikharulidze commented on the upcoming parliamentary election in Georgia and the possible difficulties associated with it.

“If it weren’t for Western colleagues who suddenly decided that they no longer liked the policy of the Georgian Dream—although they liked it before the war in Ukraine—then I am sure that the Georgian Dream would have won calmly, quietly, without fuss, because the opposition is in a fundamental crisis in terms of what it can offer the voter. The only real question is whether the pressure from Western colleagues and direct statements that you will either vote for our people or we will not be friends had an effect. The ambassadors of some European countries have openly stated this.

Another issue is how much pressure from the West and its involvement will affect voters. We are mainly talking about young people, because the Georgian Dream lost among young people, 18-25 years old, and people 30-35 and older mainly vote for the Georgian Dream. These are people who earn money, and for them these ideological appeals to values sound good, but they do not live for this,” the expert said.

Sikharulidze is confident that the ruling party will win.

“It seems to me that the Georgian Dream will win; another question is how. I don’t think they will get a constitutional majority; that would be an overstatement. Whether there will be protests or not depends on the mood of people. So far, from what I see, it has never been so quiet in Georgia before the election,” Sikharulidze emphasized.

In his opinion, possible protests by the opposition dissatisfied with the election results will be harshly suppressed.

“Georgia may be small, but it is a state that has institutions; it has a police force, and again, the era of revolutionary rallies in Georgia ended a long time ago. For 20 years now, they have been constantly waiting for a revolution. I think that in a hundred years, they will also be waiting for it. The state has openly declared that you can rally as much as you want. Godspeed. There are no problems with this in Georgia. But rallying is one thing, and storming buildings is another. This was a violation of the law before. By the way, I think a bill was passed yesterday that attempts to storm and even block administrative buildings will be severely punished,” Sikharulidze concluded.