Georgia's parliamentary elections have been framed as an existential moment for democracy by activists who want to see the pro-Russian Georgian Dream ousted from power.
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00:00Millions of Georgians are set to head to the polls on Saturday for the first time the country's
00:08elections are held in a fully proportional system.
00:13The ruling Georgian Dream Party has been in power for three terms.
00:20They will face four main opposition parties who have all said they would refuse to enter
00:26into a coalition with the ruling Georgian Dream.
00:31The party has come under controversy for the so-called Foreign Agents Bill, which critics
00:36say mimics legislation that has been passed in neighbouring Russia.
00:43They have done this extreme anti-Western turn in order, I think, to try and stay in power,
00:52to reduce democracy in Georgia, in order to reduce checks and balances.
00:59It's a position which obviously alienates the West and Georgia's Western friends, gets
01:05them a bit closer to Russia, and also closer to some other illiberal governments around
01:12the world.
01:13They're particularly close to the Hungary of Viktor Orban.
01:19Recently, Georgia has passed legislation banning same-sex marriage and adoption for same-sex
01:25couples, a move that activists say brings the country closer to Russia.
01:31Basically, their activities, the passing, adopting of the legislation are very pro-Kremlin.
01:39So they do not openly say that Georgia comes closer to Russia, but all their actions, all
01:44the legislative work basically does it.
01:47So this is their strategy.
01:49Now, Russia is engaged and basically interferes into the internal politics through this government,
01:55so it doesn't have to show up more strongly.
01:59Georgia received European Union candidate status of December last year, which was frozen
02:05in June after European Union leaders declared that Georgia's anti-democratic actions threatened
02:11the country's European integration.