Many countries have sham elections. Saddam Hussein claimed to have won more than 100 percent of the vote in 2002. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus declared victory earlier this year after an “election” where his only contenders were loyalists who campaigned on praising him. Embedded dictatorships often go through a performative election process, which in many ways reveals the intrinsic power of democracy, given that autocrats still feel the need to play-act popular support.
The country of Georgia just held local elections on Oct. 4 that fall into the sham category, putting to bed any remaining hope about the country’s status as a democracy. In the 2024 parliamentary elections, the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream (GD) regime ensured its victory through widespread intimidation, corruption, and manipulation. But this year’s elections represent a new low and lack any credibility. Russia is a key winner here, with GD’s full sweep of all levels of government – parliament, presidency, and all local councils and mayors’ offices — and, sadly, Western nations must take responsibility for not doing enough to stop it; they failed to enact adequate pressure on the regime or to provide enough support to democratic activists.
When I first moved to Georgia in 2014, the country’s election process, though not without flaws, was trusted, and there had been a peaceful transfer of power from the United National Movement (UNM) to GD the year before. Under GD’s rule, however, the credibility of elections deteriorated, and by the 2024 parliamentary elections, the process was deemed neither free nor fair by independent domestic and international observers. GD conducted a widespread campaign of intimidation and threats, vote buying, raids of civil society organizations, and abuse of state resources. Disinformation experts described how GD, in lockstep with the Kremlin, pushed narratives intended to scare voters with threats of war if they voted for the opposition. Election observers presented their findings showing serious irregularities, including multiple voting, ballot stuffing, lack of secrecy, intimidation, and statistical impossibilities.
Georgian Dream convened the new Parliament on Nov. 25, 2024, an illegal act since cases were still pending in the constitutional court challenging the integrity of the results, and the president, who is required to approve parliament, did not. Opposition representatives refused their mandates and declined to be seated in the Parliament. Then a prominent ex-footballer, known for his anti-Western views, was elected president on Dec. 14 by a GD-dominated 300-delegate electoral college, including members of Parliament, a process that lacked legitimacy given the questioned status of Parliament and fraudulent election results.
Immediately following the elections, GD announced that it would suspend plans to pursue European Union accession, despite overwhelming public support for a European future. This spurred tens of thousands of Georgians to begin peacefully protesting, and protests have occurred every day since. Black-clad security teams with no identifying insignia have systematically attacked and beaten hundreds of protesters.
Attacks on Civil Society
GD has also attacked civic organizations, particularly watchdog and election observer groups, through recent legislation that restricts civil society and limits freedom of expression and association. Their offices have been raided, and their bank accounts frozen. The government has also gone after individual civil society leaders, detaining and suing several. GD has arrested independent journalists on spurious claims in an attempt to silence any fair and balanced reporting about their rule. One watchdog reports that there have been 434 incidents violating the rights of journalists. The regime has also arrested its political opponents, and several opposition leaders are imprisoned. In fact, the regime plans to ban opposition parties full-stop.
The opposition Lelo-Strong Georgia party, despite its leaders having been jailed, and the For Georgia party, led by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia (in exile for fear of arrest), ran candidates in these municipal elections. However, they competed in only 50 percent of the constituencies, leaving GD uncontested in half the country. Other opposition parties boycotted, arguing that participation legitimized the elections. A campaign of intimidation against the opposition contenders took place during the campaign, and multiple candidates were threatened or bribed and dropped out. GD also passed additional election laws to entrench the already-biased process further in their favor, an act condemned by the Venice Commission.
Given the lack of competition in or credibility of the process, the most prominent independent domestic and international election observation groups, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), bowed out of monitoring this farce. Further, the respected domestic observer organizations are being investigated under the “sabotage” act and have had their accounts frozen, making monitoring impossible anyway. As Levan Natroshvili, executive director of The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), said, “The Georgian Dream’s repressive measures against civil society, including the adoption of restrictive laws, the launch of criminal investigations targeting leading Georgian NGOs, and the freezing of their bank accounts, have rendered independent election observation effectively impossible.” Several GD-affiliated “observer groups” and foreign undemocratic States, however, monitored election day.
Thus, before the polls opened on Oct. 4, 2025, the elections were already illegitimate. With a partisan election framework and commission in place, no independent election observers on the ground, independent civil society and media under attack, and the political opposition in jail, how could democratic elections be conducted?
Peaceful Rally Takes a Turn
On election day, as some voters went to the polls, tens of thousands of protestors convened in the capital Tbilisi. The peaceful rally took a turn when a member from UNM told protestors that they would “reclaim” the presidential palace, and a group of protestors attempted to break into the palace, where they were met with tear gas and water cannons. Multiple protestors and security forces were wounded on election night. The GD regime declared it a coup attempt, and several protest- and opposition leaders have been arrested. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also accused the West of supporting the coup and threatened the EU ambassador.
Predictably, GD declared victory, securing a landslide with more than 80 percent of the vote, sweeping all local councils and mayors’ offices. (Notably, Tbilisi had only a 30 percent turnout.) Stamping approval, the election chair from Belarus, a country infamous for failing to uphold democratic standards, declared the elections free and fair, further solidifying the absurdity of the entire process.
As the dust settles, GD promises more arrests, crackdowns, persecutions, and the full elimination of the opposition “forever.” In addition to GD, Russia is the clear victor here, fully consolidating a pro-Russian government at all levels of authority in the country. The West not helped defend Georgian democracy. Both the EU and the United States failed to pass legislation to financially sanction and weaken GD and its enablers. In the U.S. Congress, the MEGOBARI Act was held up by one senator, and the evisceration of foreign aid by the Trump administration kneecapped Georgian democracy, media, and election groups. While Georgian democrats acknowledge the battle in the country is theirs to fight, international economic pressure through sanctions is a pain point for the regime. Western leaders can still act to economically isolate the Georgian regime.
GD leaders know well that cosplaying an electoral victory through violence, repression, and rigging the process (with only foreign dictatorships praising the results) does not represent a legitimate and lasting public mandate. And Georgian democrats are determined. As we’ve seen in many other places, autocrats do lose power if citizens – across the country – organize, stand up, and resist, using their power of civil disobedience, boycotts, and strikes. Georgians will fight for their democracy and freedom, and GD can take its fragile place among other paranoid, insecure dictatorships that know their days are numbered.
