2024 Georgian parliamentary election

2024 Georgian parliamentary election

← 2020 26 October 2024 Next →
All 150 seats in Parliament 76 seats needed for a majority
Leader Irakli Kobakhidze Tina Bokuchava Mamuka Khazaradze Party GD[a] UNM Lelo Alliance – Unity Strong Georgia Leader since 8 February 2024 8 July 2024 17 July 2024 Last election 90 seats 39 seats[c] 6 seats[b]   Leader Nika Gvaramia Nika Melia Zurab Japaridze Elene Khoshtaria Giorgi Gakharia Party Ahali FG[d] Alliance Coalition for Change – Leader since 9 July 2024 29 May 2021 Last election 5 seats[e] Did not exist
Incumbent Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze Georgian Dream

Politics of Georgia
Constitution Constitutional court Human rights LGBT rights
Executive President Salome Zourabichvili Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze
Legislature Parliament Chairperson: Shalva Papuashvili
Judiciary Supreme Court Constitutional Court
Local government Administrative divisions Regions (mkhare) Municipalities
Election Administration Recent elections Parliamentary: 2016 2020 Presidential: 2013 2018 Local: 2017 2021 Political parties
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Ilia Darchiashvili Diplomatic missions of / in Georgia Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy Georgia–European Union relations Georgia–NATO relations Georgia–Russia relations Georgia–Ukraine relations
Related topics Rose Revolution United Nations Observer Mission Politics of Abkhazia Politics of South Ossetia
Georgia portal Other countries
v t e

Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Georgia on 26 October 2024.^[1][2][3] The elections are held under the rules passed in 2017 through the constitutional amendments which shifted the electoral system towards a fully proportional representation with a 5% electoral threshold.^[4]

Although the Georgian Dream (GD), a ruling party since 2012, remains the most popular party, it has lost ground since the 2020 elections, while the opposition up until recently had been deeply divided and struggled to unite against GD, complicating their efforts to deprive the party of a parliamentary majority.^[5][6] The largest opposition party United National Movement (UNM) has suffered an internal division and split over the role of a shadowy businessman Davit Kezerashvili, who has recently been involved in a scandal over allegedly running fraudulent call centers in Europe.^[7][8] Even though an idea of a unified opposition front failed, several opposition parties, including UNM, managed to create several informal coalitions to run joint electoral lists in the elections: Unity – National Movement, Strong Georgia, and Coalition for Change. Some parties did not join any coalitions and decided to run independently, such as For Georgia, Girchi and Georgian Labor Party.^[9] Majority of opposition parties signed the Georgian Charter, agreeing, among other things, on not cooperating with the Georgian Dream to form a coalition government.^[10]

The founder of the Georgian Dream, an influential oligarch and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, often regarded as the country's éminence grise following his official departure from politics in 2021, has returned to politics several months prior to the polls to lead the party in the elections.^[11] While Georgians broadly favor EU and NATO membership, they remain wary of potential conflicts with Russia, with the GD positioning itself as the only party capable of safeguarding peace through a "pragmatic policy" with Russia amid the war in Ukraine, accusing the "Global War Party", which the party considers to have substantial influence on the Western governments, of trying to drag the country into the conflict.^[12] Additionally, the party has been promoting socially conservative policies, particularly the recent "LGBT propaganda law".^{[13][14][15][16]} Georgian Dream has also vowed to outlaw the vast majority of opposition political parties, accusing them of collaborating with UNM, which GD considers to have committed crimes during its rule, such as "dragging country in the 2008 war with Russia" and instituting "the system of violence and torture".^{[17][18][19][20]} Simultaneously, Ivanishvili also made overtures to the Kremlin, calling for an apology for Georgia's role in the 2008 war.^[21] Georgian Dream has also strengthened ties with China,^[22][23] whilst promising to join the European Union whilst "playing by Georgian rules".^[24]

The opponents of Georgian Dream have focused on criticizing what they describe as "pro-Russian shift" of the party.^[25] Denouncing the Georgian Dream's rhetoric on the European integration as doublethink^[26], the opposition parties vowed to strengthen relations with the European Union, including furthering Georgia's accession into EU and also NATO, signing a memorandum "to defend and protect Georgia's path towards European integration".^[13][27] In particular, the opposition vowed to fulfill all EU's recommendations and open the membership negotiations with the European Union.^[28] The opposition parties have denounced the Georgian Dream's policy as "threatening to push Georgia into the international isolation and into the backyard of occupier power, Russia", as well as alienating "Georgia's Western allies and Ukraine, a defender of the freedom of whole civilized world".^[29] Besides the pro-EU opposition, the Georgian Dream is also challenged by a coalition of Alliance of Patriots and Alt-Info parties, which have for years consistently campaigned on electoral issues which the GD has only recently adopted, such as conservatism and strong anti-Western rhetoric.^[9] All sides have presented the upcoming election as a "decisive referendum".^[13]

The election was preceded by the 2023–2024 Georgian protests over controversial legislation requiring organizations receiving foreign funding to register as "foreign agents," which has sparked accusations of authoritarianism.^[30][31] This law has strained relations with the West, leading to U.S. sanctions against several Georgian officials for human rights abuses and discussions about potential aid reductions to Tbilisi.^[32] The EU, which granted Georgia membership candidate status in December, has now frozen its application and warned that visa-free travel could be suspended if the upcoming elections are not free and fair.^[33][34] US Congress proposed initiatives like the MEGOBARI Act and the Georgian People's Act aimed to "combat democratic backsliding" and impose sanctions on those "undermining democracy while offering incentives to strengthen Georgia's democratic institutions".^[35][36] Some analysts, on the other hand, have opined that the US and EU are interfering into Georgia's internal affairs and "undermining its sovereignity" in order to protect their large "influence network" of Western-funded NGOs in Georgia.^[37][38][39]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).