Well, academic opinion on hegemonic elec autocracies tilts towards your position. As more beneficial option between evils.. Again, with the caveat that there is a choice at all, like an impending ban in our case.

Well, I guess the regime has now closed this debate. It will ban all non systemic opposition. Constructive opposition will certainly take part.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/26/g...

www.occrp.org/en/project/s...

In the eyes of these elites, pro-democracy social resistance is an unintended and unwanted consequence of their previous flirtations with liberalism and democracy—an aberration, in their view, to be crushed./END

Considering these factors, Georgia’s recent consolidation as a hegemonic electoral autocracy is a predictable outcome. /4

The same elites have now strengthened, having created a strong state and captured it. They have also witnessed the era of democracy promotion fade away. Reconnecting with the resurgent authoritarian masters in the Kremlin, they see greater benefits in global autocratic networks. /3

It reflected their relative weakness, their lack of capacity to consolidate authoritarianism, and, most notably, an external incentive—to reap the benefits of a democratic facade in an era of democracy promotion. /2

This is the first step on the road to complete withdrawal from the COE. It is apparently what the regime's Russian masters also prefer. This means that Georgia will return to PACE only after the collapse of Ivanishvili regime.

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

As in Russia, the intensity of repression under the GD regime in Georgia has already surpassed that of the late years of Soviet rule.

this is clearly not the case with Ivanishvili's quisling regime. It is an illegitimate regime of usurpation. As a result of manipulated, hegemonic elections, it can no longer claim any democratic legitimacy. All institutions it controls lack legitimacy and are captured to serve the regime.