Georgians from Tbilisi came with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors or even their dogs. In the early afternoon of Monday, October 28, vibrant Georgian sociability manifests itself on Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi’s main artery. We break bread, we kiss, we exchange the latest news, Georgian and European flags in our hands or on our shoulders. Tens of thousands responded to President Salomé Zourabichvili’s call to protest against the results of the October 26 legislative elections, which she said were manipulated by Moscow. The police forces, grouped in the adjacent streets, are quite discreet.
The crowd impatiently awaits the speech of the president, elected in 2018 thanks to the Georgian Dream, a party in power since 2012 and which has recently become the face of the opposition. When he finally ascends to the platform installed in front of Parliament, the public applauds frantically. “You didn’t lose the election!” “They stole your voice and they also tried to steal your future, but no one has the right to do that.”she says. “In the last two days I have given seventeen interviews and spoken with six presidents. Nobody recognizes these elections! Today, thanks to this meeting, we will recover our rights.”continues, promising to defend “until the end” Georgia’s membership in the European Union (EU), frozen by Brussels in response to repressive laws adopted in spring by Georgian Dream, the ruling party.
These words are what the crowd was waiting for. Disappointed by the final results of the legislative elections announced the day before, according to which Georgian Dream obtained 54% of the votes compared to 38% for the pro-European opposition, the protesters galvanized themselves by singing the national anthem with their hands on their hearts. . The heart of the people of Tbilisi beats for the opposition. In the capital, Dream obtained only 44% of the votes. Its greatest success was recorded in the region with a large Armenian population of Javakheti, in the south of the country, where 90% of those registered voted in its favor. While the opposition presented the vote as a referendum on the future (Will Georgia be a democracy in Europe or an authoritarian country under Russian influence), Georgian Dream presented it as a choice between peace and war.
“I know they cheated.”
Close together, two students, Liza, 23, and Anna, 22, can’t believe the results. “counterfeit”may have been recognized as definitive. “Europe and the United States must help us make the truth triumph. There were so many shenanigans! I saw it myself in the constituency where I vote”explains Liza, a brunette with lively eyes. Did she personally witness the fraud? “No, but I know that [Rêve géorgien] deceived, it is not possible otherwise. So that ? In my district, here in the city, they won when they normally lose”he explains animatedly. Her friend Anna lists the falsifications reported by the opposition. “There was massive purchase of votes, multiple voting, pre-filled ballots, pressure, intimidation”he lists with a sigh. She herself did not see anything at the polling station in the capital’s Vake residential neighborhood, but she knows it happened. “especially in the countryside”.
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