By james art The election campaign in the South Caucasian nation of 3.7 million people was dominated by foreign policy and marked by a bitter battle for votes and accusations of a smear campaign.
Some Georgians complained of intimidation and pressure to vote for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while the opposition accused the party of waging a “hybrid war” against its citizens.
A video circulating on social media on Saturday showed a man stuffing ballots into a box at a polling station in the town of Marneuli, 26 miles south of Tbilisi.
Georgia’s interior ministry said it had launched an investigation, and the Central Election Commission said a criminal case had been opened and that all polling station results would be declared invalid.
Ahead of the parliamentary elections, Bidzina Ivanishvili – a shadowy billionaire who created Georgian Dream and amassed his fortune in Russia – again vowed to ban opposition parties if his party won.
Georgian Dream will hold opposition parties “fully responsible with the full force of the law” for “war crimes” committed against the people of Georgia, Ivanishvili told a pro-government rally in the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday.
He did not explain what crimes he believed the opposition had committed.
Georgians will elect 150 deputies from 18 parties. If no party wins the 76 seats needed to form a government for a four-year term, the president will invite the largest party to form a coalition.
Many feel that the election may be the most important vote of their lives; will determine whether Georgia gets back on the path to EU membership or embraces authoritarianism and falls into Russia’s orbit.
“These are existential elections,” said Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.
About 80 percent of Georgians support joining the EU, according to polls, and the country’s constitution obliges its leaders to seek membership in the bloc and NATO.
But Brussels has put Georgia’s bid to join the EU on hold indefinitely after the ruling party passed a “Russian law” curtailing freedom of speech in June.
Many Georgians fear the party is pushing the country toward authoritarianism and killing hopes it could join the EU.
Opposition parties ignored Ms Zurabishvili’s demand to unite into one party, but signed her “charter” to carry out the reforms required by the EU to join.
At last week’s EU summit, EU leaders said they had “serious concerns about the course of action taken by the Georgian government”.
Polling stations for the parliamentary elections opened at 8am local time and will close 12 hours later.
Georgian Dream is opposed by three coalitions: National Movement Unity, Coalition for Changes Lelo and Strong Georgia.
The Gakharia Party for Georgia, founded by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, has said it will not enter into an alliance with anyone but will support the opposition to form a government.