Parliamentary elections in Georgia: What is at stake

Anunita Chandrasekar of the Centre for European Reform, an independent think-tank with offices in London, Brussels and Berlin, believes that the EU's toolkit for countering election violations in Georgia is limited mainly to economic and political measures.

"What the EU can do is less a "stick" and more a "carrot". <... > Their ability to influence the Georgian leadership directly, unfortunately, is quite limited. The EU's influence comes down to financial assistance, through which they hope to turn people in favor of European integration." In addition, the expert says, the European Union can use the suspension of visa liberalization agreements with Georgia as a "stick".

..."If the opposition wins the elections, the direction of movement (set by the current government) will change," Chandrasekar is sure. According to her, the desire for European integration and unification around the European idea is what the opposition forces of Georgia will be ready to put aside other political differences.

..."Given the security situation, the situation on the border, the Russian military presence on the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the fact that it even wants to build a naval base there, I think that the practical support of Ukraine (from Georgia) can be very limited," suggests Anunita Chandrasekar.