Elections in Georgia generate controversy and suspicions of fraud: pro-Russian party in power declared winner
The ruling party in Georgia won the parliamentary elections, the country’s electoral commission said this Sunday morning. The result is seen as a severe setback for the country’s long-standing aspiration to join the European Union.
Georgia’s opposition has not conceded defeat, accusing the ruling party of a “constitutional coup” and promising to announce protests, setting the stage for a potential political crisis that could further polarize the Caucasus country.
The electoral commission states that the ruling party, Georgian Dream (GD), obtained 54% of the votes, with more than 99% of electoral districts counted. In practice, that result frustrates the opposition’s hopes of achieving a pro-Western coalition of four blocs for EU integration.
Voters in the country of almost four million people went to the polls on Saturday. It was a decisive election to determine whether the increasingly authoritarian GD party, which has been in power since 2012 and has led the country in a conservative direction away from the West and closer to Moscow, would guarantee another four-year term.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the GD, claimed victory shortly after the polls closed, in what was considered by several analysts to be the most important election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. “It is rare in the world that the same party achieve such success in such a difficult situation,” said Ivanishvili.
At a press conference on Saturday night, opposition coalition leaders characterized the election results as a “constitutional coup”.
“Victory was stolen from the Georgian people, we do not accept the results of these falsified elections,” said Tinatin Bokuchava, leader of the largest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM).
A group of 2,000 election observers called “My Vote” said it does not believe the preliminary results “reflect the will of Georgian citizens.” According to the newspaper “The Guardian”several videos were posted online showing the timing of ballot filling out and alleged voter intimidation at various locations across Georgia.
Over the past three decades, Georgia has maintained strong pro-Western aspirations, with polls showing that up to 80% of its population favors EU membership. The ruling GD faced an unprecedented union of four pro-Western opposition forces who had promised to form a coalition government to oust it from power and put Georgia back on the path to EU membership.
The biggest opposition force is the center-right UNM, a party founded by Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president who is in prison on charges of abuse of power, which his allies say are politically motivated.
Figures suggest voter turnout was the highest since the ruling Georgian Dream party was first elected in 2012.
