Opposition will only accept its victory — political scientist on Georgian election

Speaking with Alpha News, Georgian political scientist Vaso Kapanadze commented on the recent opposition rally in Tbilisi, the upcoming parliamentary election, and the possible political risks associated with them.

“The number of protesters, of course, is another reason for speculation about how many people were actually there. The opposition claims that there were tens of thousands, although in fact there were only about 15–16 thousand people. This is the number that supporters of Georgia’s European development, people who advocate for Georgia to become a member of the European Union, were able to gather. The number, of course, is a determining factor, especially since we have only five days left before the election. And gradually, most likely, as the elections approach this week, things will be heating up even more,” Kapanadze noted.

According to him, events in Georgia after the election may develop according to different scenarios, including radical protests by the opposition.

“The opposition will only accept its victory; they don’t see any other option. The opposition assumes that the current authorities will gain 25% or 30% at most, while the government representatives themselves expect it to be 60%.

Accordingly, the moods and expectations are completely different from each other. This indicates that the level of polarization in Georgian society is very high among voters, depending on which side they are inclined to. The polarization between political forces is high too, that is, between the authorities and the opposition. Therefore, it is difficult to say how all this will end, but most likely more than half of the percent of voters will vote for the current ruling party.

In any case, there will be certain difficulties, and they may even be of an extraordinary nature based on the fact that in the event of a victory of the current ruling party, Western structures will not recognize the results of the election and will try, with the help of their representatives in Georgia, opposition parties, NGOs, and those media outlets that support them, to destabilize the situation,” the expert stressed.