Georgia has descended into political turmoil that is set to shape the country for years to come.
Although exit polls indicated that the pro-European opposition coalition would win the Oct. 26 parliament elections, the official results paint a different picture.
The Central Election Commission announced on the evening of Oct. 27 that the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream party had won 54.08% of the vote, while a coalition of four pro-European opposition parties had won only 37.58%.
International observers, opposition politicians, and the country's president all cried foul, alleging widespread electoral fraud.
Thousands of Georgians were taking the streets of downtown Tbilisi in protest. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili was one of them.
A day prior, Zourabichvili urged citizens to join her at Tbilisi's Freedom Square on Rustaveli Avenue to protest the falsified election.
"These elections cannot be recognized. This is the same as recognizing Georgia's subordination to Russia. ... No one can take away Georgia's European future," she said.
The ruling Georgian Dream party campaigned as the "party of peace," highlighting the devastation of Ukrainian cities caused by the invading Russian forces as something that they could avoid by cozying up to Moscow.
The ruling party also placed emphasis that electing the pro-European opposition is a potential route to war with Russia.
The Georgian Dream campaign posters underline this rhetoric with slogans such as: "With the Georgian Dream, say yes to peace, no to war."
But it wasn't the brutal campaigning that delivered the favorable result for the ruling party, according to observers, it was the widespread fraud.
Observers documented a range of violations, from the distribution of pre-filled ballots to the confiscation of personal identification cards.
"We've witnessed ballots already marked in favor of the ruling party or voters being handed multiple ballots," a lawyer of We Vote told the Kyiv Independent from its headquarters on Liberty Square.
The NGO also pointed out that criminal groups linked to the ruling party intimidated voters and observers throughout the day.
During a press conference that followed the election, Iulian Bulai, a representative from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said that "free and fair elections were not assured."
Following the remarks, Bulai promptly exited without answering questions.
Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker part of the PACE monitoring group, told the Kyiv Independent that "it's clear that Russia wants to have Georgia in its orbit."
"As always, they're using democratic procedures to make anti-democratic things. And that's what they're doing again here," Honcharenko said.
"What I personally saw in the rural area is very, very disturbing. It clearly influences the results of elections, so they can't be called fair and free," he added.
A source close to U.S. intelligence services told Bloomberg that Georgian Dream's electronic infrastructure may have been compromised: "The Russians appear to have taken possession of key servers," the unnamed source said.
Georgia's opposition has drawn parallels between the current situation and Ukraine's ongoing conflict with Russia. "We're fighting the same enemy," said opposition activist Marika Mikiashvili. "The future of Georgia, free from Russian influence, is at stake."
Ana Minadze, an activist with the NGO Free Georgia, was one of those who were planning to pretest.
Tamar Kintsurashvili
"For me, the motivation is simple: Georgia will never become Russia," she said.
Her sentiment echoes the sentiment of young activists who have grown up watching Ukraine's struggle against Russian aggression and who reject any rapprochement with Moscow despite Georgian Dream's messaging.
"Our government is catering to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's interests," Minadze states. "We've lost 20 percent of our land to Russia, and yet Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream's oligarch leader, wants us to apologize to those who invaded us in 2008. That's something I'll never accept."
Minadze believes Georgia's future lies within Europe, not Moscow's sphere.
"We've been to Europe, we've been to America; we know what Western life is like, and we know what Russia's like," she explained, emphasizing the divide she feels between freedom and repression.
"Education, economy, and everyday life — we see what's at stake, and that's why we will protest."
Meanwhile, Pro-Russian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the Georgian parliament will approve the government despite protests by the opposition. The stand off had thus begun.
