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 Georgian Dream party won 53.93% of the vote, compared to 37.79% for an alliance of opposition parties, according to final results announced on Saturday, November 16, by the country’s electoral commission.
Georgian Dream, in operation since 2012, is accused by its detractors of pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of wanting to distance Georgia from the European Union, which he refutes. The opposition in particular accused the Government of having bought votes and putting pressure on voters, especially in sparsely populated areas.
Georgian President Salomé Zourabichvili, breaking with the government, denounced a sophisticated fraud system after a “Russian methodology”before refusing to respond to a subpoena from the prosecution to detail his accusations.
Electoral “irregularities”
In early November, an electoral institute that followed the vote and an organization of election observers declared that analysis of the results suggested widespread fraud. Washington and Brussels, who were concerned about“irregularities”requested investigations.
After the elections, the Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, on the contrary considered that the elections had been “completely fair”before promising that “European integration” stayed there “Top priority” from Tbilisi. Membership in the European Union, as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is included in Georgia’s constitution. The European Union had made these elections a test in the perspective of this accession.
Following the promulgation in spring of a law on “foreign influence” inspired by Russian legislation that 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 bone of contention with the European Union. Some leaders of the Georgian Dream, including its leader, the powerful and wealthy Bidzina Ivanishvili, have increased their hostile statements toward the West.
