Matthew Goddard/BBCGeorgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze denied accusations of vote rigging and violence in Saturday’s election and referred to as the disputed consequence a “landslide victory” for the nation that counts Russia as its northern neighbor. an important victory.
“Irregularities are in every single place,” the Georgian Dream prime minister stated in an unique interview with BBC’s Steve Rosenberg.
Official preliminary outcomes from Georgia’s electoral fee confirmed the ruling Georgian Dream get together received with an absolute majority of 54%, though exit polls for opposition TV channels confirmed 4 opposition events successful.
Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zurabichvili condemned the vote outcomes as “fully faux” and referred to as on opposition supporters to rally outdoors parliament on Monday.
Election observers stated the variety of numerous voting irregularities could have affected the outcomes. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister insisted that incidents occurred in “just a few constituencies” out of three,111 polling stations.
Georgian Dream has turn out to be more and more authoritarian, passing Russian-style legal guidelines focusing on the media and NGOs that obtain international funding, in addition to the LGBT group. The EU responded by freezing Georgia’s bid to affix the bloc, accusing it of “democratic backsliding”.
Nonetheless, one EU chief, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, was significantly fast to congratulate the get together on its fourth time period in workplace and can journey to Georgia on Monday.
Georgian Dream says it’s eager to begin talks on reviving the EU bid, however the sight of Orban arriving in Tbilisi two days after a disputed election is unlikely to go down nicely in Brussels.
Georgia PresidencyIn a preliminary assertion on Sunday night, EU leaders European Council President Charles Michel says ‘alleged violations must be carefully clarified and addressed’ and referred to as for a swift, clear and unbiased investigation.
“After all, we have now to handle these irregularities that occurred on or earlier than the election day,” the Georgian prime minister advised the BBC. “However the total content material of the election was in compliance with authorized ideas and the ideas of democratic elections.”
4 opposition teams refused to acknowledge the election outcomes, denouncing them as falsified and accusing the ruling Georgian Dream get together of stealing votes.
They’ll now have 61 seats within the 150-seat parliament, whereas Georgian Dream may have 89 seats – a majority however not sufficient to enact the constitutional modifications it needs to implement its menace to ban opposition events.
Two of the 4 opposition teams – the Alliance for Change and the United Nationwide Motion – have stated they are going to boycott parliament, and others are more likely to comply with go well with.
Georgia’s president, surrounded by all opposition leaders, stated the outcomes couldn’t be acknowledged and accused Russia of interfering within the election.
In an interview with the BBC, Kobakhidze accused the opposition of mendacity, saying additionally they stated the outcomes of the 2016, 2020 and 2021 votes have been falsified.
“After all, they haven’t any alternative now, in order that they have to inform their supporters that both they’re mendacity or the federal government rigged the election.”
An digital vote counting system was used for the primary time on Saturday, which the prime minister stated made the election unattainable to rig: “There may be zero room for manipulation.”
The pinnacle of Georgia’s election fee, which oversees the brand new system, praised the vote as largely peaceable and free, however a monitoring group that launched preliminary findings advised a distinct story.
Isfed in Georgia reported a variety of violations, together with bribery, intimidation and poll stuffing, and stated Results ‘cannot be viewed as truly reflecting the preferences of Georgia voters’.
Per Eklund, a member of the Nationwide Institute for Democracy delegation and a former EU ambassador, stated it was clear that the pre-election interval particularly had failed to fulfill democratic requirements.
“Voter intimidation … earlier than and on Election Day severely undermines the method,” he stated.
Kobakhidze additionally used the BBC interview to disclaim opposition accusations that the federal government is pro-Russian and “pro-Putinist”. He stated they’d been attempting to break the federal government’s popularity amongst Georgia’s 3.7 million individuals, who’re overwhelmingly pro-European.
Russian commentators usually welcomed the victory of “Georgian Dream” as an indication that Georgia would start its return to Moscow.
Nonetheless, the prime minister stated Georgia is the one nation within the area that doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Russia as a result of Russia has occupied 20% of Georgia’s territory since a five-day struggle in 2008.
