The final results of the controversial parliamentary elections held at the end of October in Georgia confirmed the victory of the ruling party, denounced as fraudulent by the opposition, while the West demanded that the vote be investigated. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, won 53.93% of the vote, compared to 37.79% for an alliance of opposition parties, according to the final results communicated on Saturday, November 16, by the country's electoral commission.
Georgian Dream, in business since 2012, is accused by its detractors of pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of wanting to distance Georgia from the European Union, which it refutes. The opposition notably accused the government of having bought votes and subjected voters to pressure, particularly in sparsely populated areas.
The Georgian president, Salomé Zourabichvili, breaking with the government, denounced a sophisticated system of fraud following a “Russian methodology”before refusing to respond to a summons from the prosecution to detail his accusations.
Electoral “irregularities”
At the beginning of November, a polling institute that followed the vote and an organization of electoral observers declared that analysis of the results suggested widespread fraud. Washington and Brussels, who were concerned about“irregularities”requested investigations.
After the election, the Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, on the contrary considered that the elections had been “entirely fair”before promising that “European integration” remained there “main priority” from Tbilisi. Membership in the European Union, like that in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is included in the Georgian constitution. The European Union had made this election a test in the perspective of this accession.
After the promulgation in the spring of a law on “foreign influence” inspired by Russian legislation which the Kremlin uses to muzzle civil society and the opposition, Brussels froze the accession process as a form of protest. A law that restricts the rights of LGBT+ people is another reason for discord with the European Union. Some leaders of the Georgian Dream, including its leader, the powerful and wealthy Bidzina Ivanishvili, have increased their hostile declarations towards the West.
Source: Lemonde