Overview

• Several parties, including Saakashvili’s United National Movement, are boycotting the vote and urging supporters to rally in Tbilisi, with opera singer Paata Burchuladze calling a noon “national assembly” outside Parliament.
• Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze warned of a tough police response to any unrest and said participants could end up “behind bars.”
• The ruling Georgian Dream casts the contests as the first electoral test since its disputed 2024 parliamentary win, after months of protests and a crackdown documented by NGOs with about sixty arrests over the past year.
• Opposition forces are split, as groups such as Lelo and For Georgia still field candidates despite the boycott calls.
• A recent rollback of gender quotas produced all-male slates in Tbilisi, feeding concerns over democratic backsliding alongside EU criticism and the freeze in Georgia’s accession process.