2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections
Azerbaijani state media cover Georgian Dream’s pre-election campaign
Over the last month, Azerbaijan’s official government news agency Azertac has published multiple articles focusing on ethnic Azerbaijani candidates running for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while failing to provide a platform for Azerbaijani opposition candidates. On 16 October, Azertac interviewed Georgian Dream MP Zaur Darghalli, who said that his party had guaranteed stability in Georgia, and elaborated on how it was able to keep the peace for the last 12 years. ‘These elections are
Podcast | Georgia gears up for the 2024 parliamentary elections
With Georgia’s parliamentary elections inching closer, both the ruling Georgian Dream party and the many groups representing the opposition are scrambling to prepare for the critical vote on 26 October. This week, OC Media’s Robin Fabbro, Mariam Nikuradze, and Shota Kincha discuss how the pre-election campaign period has been going, claims of electoral violations by Georgian Dream, and the atmosphere in Georgia ahead of the vote. Read more: * Who’s who in Georgia’s pa
Ranking Georgia’s political parties by gender balance in the 2024 elections
Georgia’s parliamentary elections on 26 October, unlike the previous vote, will be held without any gender quotas. As women’s representation in Georgian politics remains an issue, we have examined the electoral lists of all the major parties and groupings and ranked them based on how many women they included — and how highly they were placed. The ruling Georgian Dream party pushed through mandatory gender quotas ahead of the 2020 parliamentary and 2021 local elections in an apparent bid to pro
Deep fakes ‘target’ Georgian opposition on TikTok ahead of elections
A Georgian elections watchdog has published a report outlining the increased use of AI technology in the pre-election period, including the creation of deep fakes based on opposition politicians. On Tuesday, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) reported that anonymous actors had used AI technologies to forge the voices of Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili and For Georgia chair Giorgi Gakharia in videos shared on social media. According to ISFED, one such a
Georgian Dream’s Kaladze labels German deputy foreign minister ‘ordinary Kubilius in a dress’
Georgian Dream General Secretary Kakha Kaladze has called Germany’s deputy foreign minister an ‘ordinary Kubilius in a dress’ after she said that his party is ‘creating obstacles’ on the path to EU membership. ‘I don’t know who that lady is. She’s just an ordinary Kubilius in a dress,’ Kaladze remarked on Monday, in response to criticism from Anna Lührmann, Germany’s Minister of State for Europe and Climate. He was comparing her to former Lithuanian Prime Minister and current MEP Andrius Kubil
UK suspends ‘strategic dialogue’ and defence talks with Georgia
The UK has announced it has suspended a number dialogue formats with Georgia, citing the government’s anti-democratic actions. In an interview with the Georgian news agency IPN published on Tuesday, the British Ambassador to Georgia, Gareth Ward, said the move came in response to democratic backsliding and anti-Western rhetoric by the Georgian government. He said the UK had frozen the Wardrop Dialogue, an annual British-Georgian strategic dialogue format, cancelled high-level talks betwee