Georgia Opposition Unites To Oust Billionaire's Party In Poll

(@FahadShabbir)

Georgia opposition unites to oust billionaire's party in poll

Tbilisi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Oct, 2020 ) :Georgia went to the polls Saturday in tightly contested parliamentary elections pitting an unlikely union of opposition forces against the increasingly unpopular ruling party led by the country's richest man.

Nestled between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, Georgia is seen as a rare example of a democracy among ex-Soviet countries.

But elections in the country of nearly four million people regularly spark mass protests, with only one orderly transition of power, after a parliamentary vote in 2012.

Two colourful personalities dominate politics in the tiny Caucasus country -- the flamboyant former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who lives in exile in Ukraine, and billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

In an unprecedented show of unity, Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) and smaller opposition groups have joined forces to challenge the ruling Georgian Dream party chaired by Ivanishvili.