Technically, the biggest challenge for all of Georgia is the upcoming elections and how they will be held, said MEP Markéta Gregorová at Tbilisi Rooms, where the McCain Institute, the George W. Bush Institute and the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) are hosting the 8th Tbilisi International Conference called "Transitional Year".
“Well, technically the biggest challenge now for the whole Georgia is the upcoming elections and how will they unfold, because from the statements of GD it seems that if they get constitutional majority, they want to ban the opposition or the biggest opposition party which goes directly against what democracy in itself is and would be de facto a state capture as was discussed on the previous panel. So I think in the upcoming elections we need to ensure, and this is something that the elections are not manipulated, are fair and democratic”, she said.
Ms. Markéta was asked, how does she see the change of rhetoric of the Georgian Dream.
“I think it was interesting in the previous panel where they said that Georgian Dream never really reversed the course because they have been like this from the beginning and I do tend to agree with that. I've been focusing on Georgia for the past six years, even more, so I do realize that the criticism we have has been there already previously. What I think is currently very surprising is that originally, at least, all the parties seemed like they wanted to uphold democracy. But if you want to ban the opposition party, and you say that before elections, normal democracy, you would be unelectable. Nobody would elect a party who would destroy democracy. So I honestly really don't know what Georgian Dream is looking at, and whether they have impulse, and this is what their voters want to hear, but I don't think so. So I do hope that we will see in the elections a result that will reflect this", - she said.
