TBILISI -- It is very quiet at the polling station at Public School No. 94 in the Afrika district. It is still the morning and there are more observers than voters.
There are many observers monitoring the elections, some from local and international NGOs. But political parties also have observers -- and sometimes they can seem more like activists.
I am sitting with two of them: Tsiuri Tsertsvadze from the right-wing populist Alliance of Patriots of Georgia and Anna, an independent, volunteer observer. When I ask Anna why she wanted to observe the parliamentary elections, she says, "I want justice to be done." Tsertsvadze just repeats one word: "Peace, peace, and peace."
Workers from Georgia's Central Election Commission bring back a ballot box to the polling station. They have been out collecting the ballots of elderly people voting from home.
Nini Chkhartishvili, who was entrusted with this task, tells me that the mood of the voters has been mixed. But she herself is beaming with joy and asks me to take a photo. "I have very high hopes, and elections are the day when we should experience a lot of progress as a country," she said.
But not everyone is such good spirits.While having coffee with other observers in a ribbon-decorated first-grade classroom, I meet another young volunteer, 21-year-old Diana Tkhinvaleli. Despite her age, she is something of a veteran and has been going door-to-door with her mother -- a member of the Central Election Commission -- since she was 15.
"Unfortunately, I don't have high hopes. I used to think that the Georgian Dream [ruling party] would win because they would falsify the elections, but as soon as I started going door to door, I realized that people really believe what they are told: for example that joining Europe means losing their Georgian identity," Tkhinvaleli said.
"I am young, I support freedom of speech and liberal values, but [my heart sinks] when I look at the people who will decide my fate."
"We want peace," say some elderly people standing in the wind and the rain. "I don't want bullets buzzing over my children's head," one says. In its campaign, Georgian Dream has said the opposition parties would drag Georgia into war with Russia and that only the ruling party can ensure peace.
At the polling station in Varketili, the lines are long and I can hear a number of heated arguments. Some people are complaining they are not on the voter lists.
A young election observer, who speaks to me on the condition of anonymity, tells me to pay attention to the Georgian Dream activists outside and points to what she thinks are suspicious-looking cars.
Outside, I see an observer from Georgian Dream, who is prohibited by law from campaigning, proclaiming loudly that he will "wake up the neighbors," presumably to get them to come and vote.
Nearby, groups of young men are standing around their cars. When I point my camera at them, they get out of their cars and come toward me, asking me why I am taking photographs.
While in Varketili, I speak to 67-year-old Giorgi Loladze, who is mostly worried about unemployment. He also tells me how children are going hungry at school, including his two grandchildren. He says he gives them money for food, but they share it with a classmate who has nothing -- and then they're all still hungry. "Three meals should be introduced in all Georgian schools," he said.
At a polling station in Temka, I sit down with Ana Gogoladze, a young observer of from the Free Democratic Institute, an NGO that promotes democracy, good governance, and human rights.
Just before voting, people's thumbs are sprayed with invisible ink. When they enter polling stations, they are checked with a UV light to make sure they haven't already voted.
Gogoladze tells me that election monitors at the door are only checking the spray markings on one thumb, when they should be checking two. Earlier, she says, she saw a young man trying to vote for a second time, "and that's why it's necessary to check both hands."
I heard that the spray markings were ignored in other places. Another election observer, who speaks to me on the condition of anonymity, tells me about a case when a person didn't have the correct markings but was allowed to vote anyway because they said they had a skin condition.
I rushed from Temka to Gldani, after I hear that a fight had broken out polling station No. 60. Several TV crews are already there, but the brawlers have moved to the nearby park by the time I arrive.
I speak to Ema Kordzakhia from the opposition Coalition for Change and an observer at the polling station. She tells me that the situation that led to the scuffle was aggravated by an observer from Georgian Dream. "One guy was here since the morning and was provoking people, making comments, including to me, when I tried to expel a voter who was trying to vote twice," she says.
It doesn't feel safe here working alone, so I join Mindia Gabadze, a TV journalist, and go to another polling station at a school. We are met by a group of men dressed in black, and when we start filming, they leave the area cursing as they go.
At that polling station, I speak to Levan Jagashvili, a member of the Central Election Commission. He says that the situation has been bad since the morning.
"A representative of Georgian Dream came in and immediately started filming an opposition observer," he says. According to Jagashvili, a confrontation ensued, and some people in masks arrived on the scene.
"There are so many Georgian Dream representatives," Jagashvili says, looking around him. They are hugging and winking at voters like old acquaintances, he says. "It's not falsification, but it seems like they planned all this in advance."
