Ivanishvili threatens to ban the opposition

The founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, on Wednesday reiterated his promise to ban opposition parties if his party wins key parliamentary elections this weekend.

If it wins a majority in the parliament, Georgian Dream will force the opposition parties to "answer before the force of law for the war crimes committed against the population of Georgia," Ivanishvili said at a large pro-government rally in Tbilisi's central square. As reported by Reuters, he did not specify what crimes they committed.

Although he rarely appears in public, the billionaire and former prime minister is widely considered the main power in this country in the South Caucasus with a population of around 3,7 million.

Thousands of people flooded Tbilisi's main avenue and central Freedom Square on Wednesday, though the crowd thinned out noticeably as Ivanishvili spoke. He addressed his supporters behind bulletproof glass, the British agency points out. Ahead of Wednesday's rally, a senior Georgian Dream lawmaker said the party would organize transportation for a "significant" number of participants, the Interpres news agency reported.

"I have supported the Georgian Dream since the day it was founded," said Ramaz Giorgadze, who said he came from the town of Tkibuli, about 240 kilometers west of the capital.

"Thank God for sending us such a man as Bidzina Ivanishvili," he said, praising the former prime minister for his investments in several cities in western Georgia.

After Ivanishvili's speech, his eldest son, Bera, a rapper, performed his 2011 song "Georgian Dream", after which the party was originally named.

Ivanishvili issued the call for the gathering ahead of tomorrow's parliamentary elections, which are seen as a test of whether the country will return to Russia's orbit or maintain its pro-Western orientation.

Last Sunday, President Salome Zourabishvili, a fierce critic of the Georgian Dream party, told Georgians to "not be afraid" and sent a strong pro-European message to thousands of opposition supporters who displayed Georgian and EU flags in the same square.

Georgia was granted EU candidate status last year, but relations have deteriorated sharply since the government passed a "foreign agents" law in May, which critics say is a sign the country is turning to Moscow.

Tbilisi's main Western allies responded by imposing sanctions on senior Georgian officials, withdrawing tens of millions of dollars in aid and freezing longstanding security and defense dialogues with Tbilisi.

Ivanishvili presented tomorrow's elections as an existential struggle to prevent the "Global War Party" in the West from pushing Tbilisi into direct conflict with Moscow.

Tbilisi Mayor and Georgian Dream Secretary General Kakha Kaladze echoed Ivanishvili's message on Wednesday, accusing "so-called friends of Georgia" of direct interference in Saturday's upcoming elections: "We refuse to be vassals to anyone, following the wishes of others."

Such rhetoric may not win over voters in Tbilisi or other major cities of Georgia, but the situation is different in the regions and rural areas.

"I don't like the Georgian Dream, but I hate the (former ruling party) National Movement, and at least we will be at peace," 68-year-old Lali, who lives north of Tbilisi, told the BBC.

Georgians still vividly remember the five-day war with Russia in 2008, when the National Movement was in power and 20 percent of the country was still occupied.

The National Movement is the largest of the four opposition groups and Ivanishvili has called for it to be banned, along with all those in the opposition who are considered "opponents of the people and enemies of the state".

In a lengthy, 80-minute interview broadcast on Monday, Ivanishvili accused several opposition candidates of fomenting revolution and chaos in Georgia ahead of the election.

He also attacked what he called "LGBT propaganda", claiming that in the West parents force their children to undergo sex-change operations and that "male milk" is considered "the same as female milk". Earlier this month, a law was signed in Georgia that significantly restricts the rights of LGBT people.

After 12 years in power, the Georgian Dream party faces a tight race against four opposition groups. Although polls in Georgia are not considered reliable, the latest research indicates that Georgian Dream will win the most votes individually, but that the four opposition parties together could surpass them.

However, there are concerns about the conditions in which the elections are held. Some reports state that civil servants, teachers and firefighters were intimidated into voting for the government.

"They are threatening them that they could lose their jobs... saying that they will know who voted for whom," Vano Chikvadze, manager of the EU Integration Program at the Civil Society Foundation, told the BBC. "This is especially true in rural regions - these are small communities and everyone knows everyone."