An elegy for Georgia’s democracy – POLITICO

Michael Hikari Cecire is an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government.

In the waning hours of last Saturday night, the initial euphoria among Georgia’s opposition and pro-democracy activists began turning into desperation, as the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the preliminary results of the country’s parliamentary election.

Earlier, independent polling had suggested the opposition had collectively overcome the increasingly autocratic ruling Georgian Dream party (GD). But the preliminary results showed something entirely different: GD had not only won but, with 54 percent of the vote, it had improbably made its best ever showing since first coming to power in 2012.