By Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgians voted on Saturday in parliamentary elections that both sides portrayed as an existential battle that will determine whether the country will integrate closely with the West or fall back on Russia.

In the vote, the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012, and four main blocs representing the pro-Western opposition faced each other. Polls opened at 04:00 GMT and will close at 16:00 GMT, with approximately 3.5 million Georgians eligible to vote.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the reclusive billionaire founder of Georgian Dream and former prime minister, said the election was “a very simple choice”.

“Either we will elect a government that will serve you, the Georgian people… or we will elect a representative of a foreign country who will only carry out the duties of a foreign country,” said Ivanishvili, who is considered the country’s main power broker. He cast his vote in Tbilisi on Saturday.

“This day will determine the future of Georgia,” Georgian Dream critic President Salome Zourabichvili, whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said after voting in the capital.

“There will be a victory tonight, and this victory will be the victory of Georgia, the victory of all Georgia,” he said.

Georgia, which lost part of its territory to Russian-backed separatists in the 1990s and was defeated in a brief Russian invasion in 2008, was one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the Soviet Union in decades.

But since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Georgian Dream has decisively pulled the country back into Moscow’s orbit, accusing the West of trying to draw the country into war. The opposition describes this change as a betrayal of Georgia’s future in Europe.

Media sympathetic to opposing sides published rival polls; Pro-opposition broadcasters predict Georgian Dream will lose its majority, and supporters of the ruling party predict a landslide victory with its best performance yet.

Although all parties say they hope for a peaceful vote, the Caucasus country has a volatile political history with many popular uprisings and periods of civil unrest since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Authorities used force to break up demonstrations this year against a law requiring groups receiving foreign funds to register as foreign agents. The opposition and the West described it as a Russia-inspired measure to suppress dissent.

‘GLOBAL WAR PARTY’

Ivanishvili cast Saturday’s elections as an existential struggle to prevent what he calls the “Global War Party” in the West from pushing Tbilisi into direct conflict with Moscow.

“Right now, some people do not understand the danger they may face if we lose. But we will do our best to win and show people the right path,” Georgian Dream activist Sandro Dvalishvili told Reuters.

Georgian Dream says its aim is to achieve a constitutional ban on the main opposition party, the United National Movement, by gaining three-quarters of the seats in parliament.

Opposition parties and President Zourabichvili accuse Georgian Dream of buying votes and intimidating voters, but it denies these allegations.

Opposition activists say only a close alliance with the West, including membership in the European Union, can protect Georgia from Russia.

“The hunger of Russian imperialism knows no borders. That’s why we need strong allies. And these strong allies are in the European Union,” said former civil servant Nana Malashkhia, who rose to fame last year after she was filmed waving the EU flag. During the protest, police were blasted with water cannons. He is currently running for parliament.

The EU granted candidate membership status to Georgia last year, but put the application on hold because it said democracy was declining within the scope of the Georgian Dream.

The four main opposition parties aim to form a coalition government to remove Georgian Dream from power and put Georgia back on the path to EU accession.

(Reporting by Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou; editing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)