Voters in Georgia are heading to the polls to elect a new parliament. The vote promises to be decisive for the country's future and its path toward the European Union.

Now, having left her job at the Tbilisi mayor's office to dedicate herself to politics, Malashkhia is at the centre of a high-stakes election on Saturday as the top candidate for the Coalition for Change, one of the country's four main opposition parties.

The South Caucasus country of Georgia will go to the polls Saturday in a parliamentary election many citizens believe may be the most crucial vote of their lifetimes

So when the country's four opposition groups label Saturday's pivotal election as a choice between Russia or Europe, their aim is to end 12 years of rule by the governing Georgian Dream party, who they accuse of drifting back into Russia's orbit.

Georgia — like other former Soviet republics — has found itself between Russia and the West, with competing forces pulling it in either direction.