The pro-Western Georgian opposition called for protests on Monday against the controversial victory in the legislative elections of the ruling Georgian Dream party, aligned with Russia. After Saturday’s crucial elections, Georgian Dream (GD) remains in power, but accused of voter intimidation and coercion. A major blow to the country’s long-held aspiration to join the European Union (EU).
The opposition has refused to recognize its defeat and accuses GD of a “constitutional coup”, which could be the prelude to a political crisis which further polarizes this Caucasian country.
At the opposition press conference on Sunday evening, the president of pro-European Georgia, Salomé Zurabichvili, declared that she did not recognize the election result and that the country was the victim of a “special operation Russian”. Zourabichvili, whose duties as head of state are largely ceremonial, called on Georgians to protest the election result Monday evening. “This is a total fraud, a total theft of your votes,” he said.
The electoral commission announced on Sunday that 54% of the votes went to the GD, which translates to 89 seats in Parliament, one less than in the 2020 elections. The four pro-Western opposition parties together won 61 seats. This result puts an end to the opposition’s hopes of building a coalition formed by the four pro-European parties and leaves unresolved the aspiration of them and a large part of the population for Georgia to become a member of the EU.
Authoritarian and conservative drift
Since coming to power in 2012, the increasingly authoritarian government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has steered the country of nearly four million people toward conservative policies, away from the West and toward Russia. Voters went to the polls on Saturday to decide whether or not to grant him a new four-year term.
Sinister billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the GD, declared himself the winner shortly after voting closed, in what was described as the most important elections in Georgia since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. This is an atypical case in the country. world, that the same party achieves such success in such a complicated situation is a good indicator of the talent of the Georgian people,” said Ivanishvili, considered the most powerful person in the country.
Georgia has aspired to be part of Europe for three decades. According to polls, up to 80% of the population supports EU membership. However, in recent years the government has increasingly moved away from the West towards Russia, refusing to condemn Moscow for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
An international mission of observers affirmed on Sunday that the conduct of the elections demonstrated the country’s “democratic regression”. According to a preliminary report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), “instances of intimidation, coercion and pressure on voters, particularly on public sector employees and other groups, were recorded, raising doubts about the ability of some citizens to vote without fear of reprisal.
But the OSCE did not go so far as to claim that the elections were rigged or fraudulent, as opposition parties repeated on Sunday. On Saturday morning, videos of alleged ballot tampering and voter intimidation at several polling stations in Georgia circulated on the Internet.
According to electoral commission data, in some rural areas the GD won by suspect margins, up to 90%, although its results in big cities were disappointing.
In Europe and the United States, they expressed concern over accusations of electoral fraud, but they maintained cautious language and refrained from rejecting the results. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, pleaded on Sunday for a rapid and transparent investigation into alleged electoral irregularities.
Meanwhile, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, joined international observers’ call for a full investigation into the fraud allegations. “Looking ahead, we encourage Georgia’s political leaders to respect the rule of law, repeal laws that undermine fundamental freedoms, and together address deficiencies in the electoral process,” Blinken said in a statement.
A weakened opposition
It is not certain whether the opposition will be able to muster the necessary support in the coming days. Last spring, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, to protest a controversial bill against “foreign agents.” According to its critics, the aim of this legislation was to control the country’s media and NGOs. Police repression and a series of arrests weakened the protests until the end of the citizen movement.
Saturday’s election result suggests a hard core of Georgian voters who continue to support the GD, particularly in industrial centers and poorer conservative regions, where economic development has been slow and the attractiveness of the Europe is blurry and distant. Among the many congratulations the DG has received from foreign leaders is that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a former ally of Ivanishvili, who is scheduled to visit Tbilisi tomorrow, Tuesday.
Critics of the GD, in Georgia and abroad, accuse the party of leading the country toward authoritarianism. Ivanishvili’s promise, if re-elected, was to ban all opposition parties and fire their lawmakers. The party faced an unprecedented union of four pro-Western opposition parties, which had promised to form a coalition government to oust the GD and return Georgia to the path of European integration.
Founded by former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the center-right UNM is the main opposition force. Saakashvili called on Georgians to take to the streets from prison, where he is serving his sentence after being convicted of abuse of power. According to his allies, there are political reasons behind this imprisonment.
After the election, voters in Tbilisi appeared divided over the direction of the country. “Today we lost our country, I don’t know what to do now; “I hope we can go out, but if we lose, I might go live abroad,” he said. Tutor a 25-year-old student, Ana Machaidze.
In general, support for pro-Western opposition parties lies among young urban voters who are considering their political future within the EU. Irakli Shengelia, a 56-year-old restaurant worker, said she was happy that the GD remained in power because it constituted a guarantee of “peace and stability” with Russia.
Aligned with the influential and deeply conservative Orthodox Church, the Georgian government has sought to stoke feelings of rejection of liberal democracy by campaigning for traditional “family values” and criticizing what it presents as Western excesses. The Georgian parliament recently approved a law that restricts the rights of the LGTBIQ+ community. Critics say the move mirrors laws passed in neighboring Russia, where authorities have implemented several measures to crack down on members of the group.
The Georgia election results were very well received in Russia, with election propaganda celebrating them as they became known. “The Georgians have won,” said Margarita Simonyan, the influential editor-in-chief of Russian state media RT.
