Georgia’s fragile democracy teetering on the brink- English-language newspaper New Europe publishes extensive article.
The publication reads that the last direct presidential election was distinguished with fraudulent rigging.
According to the author, "backed by Ivanishvili’s wealth and nefarious contributions from outside contributors, the Georgian Dream has become an electoral campaigning machine with the wherewithal to mobilise all of the tools of the trade to overwhelm the Georgian population with the message that “they are the party in power, and like in the Soviet Union, you are expected to vote for the party.
The article states that "through a steady stream of television advertisements, phone canvassing, billboards, and oddly presented messages from Ivanishvili, who, once again, is a private citizen, but often takes on the role of “Dear Leader”, the Georgian Dream has spent the last six years demonising the opposition.
.The article emphasizes that "doubling down on his investment in Zurabishvili, Ivanishvili announced several days before the poll that his financial institution, Cartu Bank, would suddenly write off bank loans for 600,000 people who were crippled by debt that was largely denominated in dollars."
The article deals with visit of Vladimir Putin"s closest friend, Victor Medvedchuk, who reportedly met with Ivanishvili and members of Zurabishvili’s campaign team to discuss their strategy for the days ahead.
The author also estimates that vote buying, the use of fake ids, threatening voters, and bussing people to vote at multiple sites was widely reported by the international observers that were on hand for the November 28 vote
At the end of the publication, the author points out that if the ruling team does not take into account the opposition"s appeal not to turn the country into Putin"s South Caucasian analogy and will turn its back to Georgia`s Euro-Atlantic integration, Zourabichvili"s election might be the beginning of the end of the Georgian Dream.