Without free competition among political groups, there can be no democracy. This is why the latest reports from the South Caucasus nation of Georgia are so alarming. The ruling Georgian Dream party, an authoritarian, pro-Russian group, has threatened to ban all opposition parties if it wins a majority in the Oct. 26 parliamentary elections. This could be the final call for Georgia’s democracy. The United States can do more to save it.
By the Editorial Board
What makes Georgia especially important among former Soviet republics is that much of the population remains committed to a democratic future with ties to Europe, despite Georgian Dream’s alignment with Russia. Georgia’s head of state, President Salome Zourabichvili, who comes from a small liberal party and has been critical of Georgian Dream, bluntly said in a speech last month that the election stakes are “existential.” “The choice,” Ms. Zurabishvili declared, “will be between being Russia’s slave or cooperation with Europe.”
When the Georgian Dream party attempted to ram through a repressive “foreign agent” law earlier this year, modeled after legislation pioneered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Georgia’s citizens took to the streets in protest of what they called the “Russian law,” and young people led the way.
In the end, Georgian Dream prevailed, overriding a presidential veto, and the legislation took effect. It requires any nongovernmental or media organization receiving more than 20 percent of its funds from abroad, as many of Georgia’s 10,000 or so nonprofits do, to register with a public database that suggests they are “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.” Some are defying the law, risking heavy fines; the law is also being challenged in court. In other repressive nations, similar laws have been used to stigmatize civil society groups and strangle their funding. The European Union and the United States have warned that the law marks a serious obstacle to Georgia’s future E.U. and NATO membership, which is undoubtedly one reason Georgian Dream and its Russian backers support it.
In the latest broadside, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze explicitly threatened last month to abolish the main opposition parties and coalitions if Georgian Dream wins a 113-seat supermajority in the 150-member Parliament. “In reality, all of these are one political force,” he declared of the opposition parties and coalitions, among them the United National Movement, founded by former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, whom the current regime has jailed on politically motivated charges. The current opposition was in power from 2004 to 2012.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister who is the power behind Georgian Dream, has repeatedly labeled the opposition the front for a shadowy global conspiracy to take over Georgia. This echoes Mr. Putin’s paranoid warnings about “color revolutions” being inspired by the West.
The prime minister’s latest comments strongly suggest that Georgian Dream is preparing to obliterate the opposition. Mr. Kobakhidze did not say explicitly how this would be accomplished but has suggested that the ruling party would claim the opposition led by Mr. Saakashvili had criminally provoked Russia into a 2008 invasion. This is absurd: Russia invaded Georgia and still occupies 20 percent of its territory. “It is possible for the prosecutors’ office to launch specific investigations, which we may initiate, or a parliamentary commission may be formed,” the prime minister said, adding that it would lead to opposition members being thrown out of Parliament. “It is inadmissible for the criminal representatives of the criminal political force to retain the status of the member of the Georgian Parliament.”
Polls show that nearly two-thirds of Georgians believe that the country is on the wrong track and that it is time for a change from Georgian Dream’s rule. The sentiment is especially strong among young people, who, we are told, are flocking to volunteer as poll watchers for the upcoming ballot.
On July 31, the State Department announced a “pause” in $95 million in aid directly to the government of Georgia to protest “anti-democratic actions and false statements.” Georgia’s accession to the European Union enjoys strong support at home but the E.U. has halted the process in response to the latest retreat from democracy. These are smart, measured sanctions in response to Georgian Dream’s authoritarian tendencies. The United States should use the time between now and the election to speak up in defense of free and fair balloting, an honest count, and respect for the results. The citizens of Georgia need to hear from President Joe Biden and from Congress that they will not tolerate a one-party state in Georgia. If the United States treats the situation with benign neglect, democracy may die in yet another politically promising corner of the post-Soviet world.
