This year marks the twelfth autumn since the 2008 war and the eighth year since the Georgian Dream party came to power.
People living along the line of occupation discuss how their lives have changed over the years (for better or for worse), their expectations in 2012 and the real situation eight years later in a JAMnews report from the conflict zone.
Although this October turned out to be particularly warm, there are fewer people in the villages than is normal for this time of year.
The village of Ergneti is half empty. Most of the people who stayed are the elderly, and all of them are tending to their plots of land.
"Wait, wait, we can fit two more boxes." The call can be heard from behind an open gate.
A bent-backed, 60-year-old man is carrying a box full of yellow apples from the yard and places it in the back of a small truck. Then he returns, almost dragging the second box.
"Take these away for now, then we'll think about what to do with the rest," he says to the driver, who starts the car and drives off, leaving behind a cloud of dust on the village road.
Almost all residents of Ergneti village, located on the line of occupation, have finished picking apples. Now their main concern is selling the harvest and stocking up on food for the winter. For many here, apples are the only source of income.
"It's like pushing a boulder uphill, just to have it roll back down again. There was hail this year and half of the crop was lost. But if we sit down and start wailing, who will help us? What's the point in that?!" says Niko Dvalishvili, a resident of Ergneti.
Like his fellow villagers, he handed over his hail-tainted fruit to a place in a nearby village where the government pays 22 tetri [about 6 cents] in subsidies per kilogram of sub-par apples.
"We're in a position where every cent counts. There was a time when they paid 48 tetri [about 15 cents] for such apples, and we could buy much more food than we buy now", says Niko.
Niko has a well-tended yard, in the shade of the alley there are boxes of apples, and by an outdoor sink there are large blue cans.
He says that water scarcity is a serious problem in rural areas in the conflict zone that has not been addressed for years.
"Our water runs every two days. We have been promised water all the time, but no one knows how soon it will be", says Niko, picking the just yellowed leaves from the alley one by one.
Ergneti is the last village in Georgian territory. When you reach the end of the village, a dividing line begins 200 meters away, followed by the city of Tskhinvali [the capital of South Ossetia – JAMnews]. It is five kilometers from Ergneti, and 30 kilometers from the city of Gori.
The further you are from Gori and the closer you are to the conflict zone, the less often you encounter the billboards with campaign posters that fill all of Georgia.
In Ergneti, bordering Tskhinvali, there are no such posters to be seen.
In Niko's house, traces of the war are still visible.
They do not discuss the elections here, some do not even know what candidates are running for the election on October 31.
Local residents say that politicians do not visit and did not give them any promises.
The election campaign is monitored only on television.
"It's as if we don't live in this country, we don't count. I can't even remember the last time a politician came. I think it was sometime in the spring", says Niko.
Ergneti suffered the most during the 2008 war. Most of the houses here were burned down. Among them was Niko's house.
On the second floor of Niko's house, there are still traces of the war. Only the lower floor of the house was restored with the compensation received from the previous government to the tune of 15,000 lari [about $4,500].
"Everything burned down, I restored the first floor, the second one can't be used anymore. I have given up hope that someone will do something to help me. The lower rooms are enough for me, living alone", he says.
Almost all of Niko's neighbors have left. Most of them chose not to rebuild their houses with the compensation they received, but instead left the village to start a new life in the city.
Currently, there are 240 registered residents of Ergneti. In 2014, there were 500.
"Before, I couldn't tell the difference between the village and the city," says Niko's fellow villager Malkhaz Toroshelidze. But after the war, people kept leaving. They didn't want to, but there is no other way out, there is no future here".
The Toroshelidze family is celebrating their grandchildren coming to visit.
"Why did we leave the village? If we stayed, what kind of future would our children have? There is not even a kindergarten in the village. I love everything in this village, I do not want to lose anything, but love alone is not enough. We would have to work extra hard to stay..."