What next for Georgia?

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kate Adie presents stories from Georgia, the US, Benin and Egypt.

In Georgia, tens of thousands of people took to the streets this week amid claims of election violations, highlighting the rift between voters hoping for closer ties to Europe and those wishing to retain relations with Russia. Rayhan Demytrie reports from the capital Tbilisi.

Immigration is one of the leading issues for voters in the US Presidential election. James Menendez travelled to both Mexico and the Southern US to meet people affected, in different ways, by the border crisis.

More than 12 months on since the October 7th attacks by Hamas, and the onset of Israel’s retaliation, foreign journalists have still been unable to report directly from Gaza. As a result, news organisations have often turned to Gazan citizens to relay what they see on a daily basis. Lara Elgabaly reports on some of the virtual relationships she has built in reporting on Gaza - and what it was like when she finally met a family that had been sharing their story with her.

Voodoo is an often misunderstood and maligned religion, says its followers, but the government in Benin wants to correct that - and even use the country's traditional belief system and culture to appeal to tourists, as Sam Bradpiece discovered.

And finally, returning to the US election. With the polls neck and neck, America is likely to remain a deeply divided nation no matter who wins the White House next week – but where does the 2024 race sit in the long arc of America’s political history? Nick Bryant has reported from the campaign trail since the 90s and reflects on what next week’s vote could mean for the country.

Producers: Emma Close and Polly Hope. Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith. Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello. Today, as the U.S. presidential election looms, we're on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to explore the hot-button issue of migration.
0:17.8	And we'll be exploring where this year's election sits in the long arc of American history.
0:25.0	After a year of text messages and phone calls, our correspondent finally comes face to face
0:31.3	with the Garson family whose story she's been sharing.
0:35.7	And in Benin, we find out how the government is seeking to restore
0:40.3	the international reputation of its traditional religion, voodoo. But first to Georgia, where tens of
0:48.2	thousands of people, many of them draped in EU and Georgian flags, gathered outside Parliament in Tbilisi this week to press for
0:57.1	the annulment of last weekend's election. The pro-Western president appealed to the international
1:03.2	community to stand behind her country's people after claims of election violations. However, the ruling Georgian Dream Party, which won almost 54% of the vote, says it was free and fair,
1:18.8	a claim supported by the country's election commission following a partial recount.
1:24.3	Rehan Dimitri reports from the capital.
1:31.3	Where are we going? To Europe. This was the refrain at a large opposition rally one week before Georgia's most anticipated parliamentary
1:37.1	election in decades. Thousands of people marched that day to Tbilisi's Freedom Square,
1:43.5	optimistic about the possibility of change.
1:46.0	Georgian Dream, the Russian nightmare, they do not love the Georgian people,
1:51.0	26-year-old Sandra told me, referring to the ruling party,
1:55.0	Our future is in Europe.
1:58.0	Poles had suggested a coalition of pro-EU opposition parties could beat the Georgian
2:03.5	Dream that had been in power for the past 12 years. Three days later, though, the same central
2:10.0	square filled with the supporters of Georgian Dream. Tens of thousands of people were busting by the
2:15.9	government from different regions of the country.
2:18.3	Young people marched carrying blue and yellow Georgian dream flags,
	...

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