On the evening of Oct. 28, thousands of people staged demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, to protest the results of a parliament poll won by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Georgian Dream won almost 54 percent—roughly 1.12 million votes—of all ballots cast in the Oct. 26 poll, according to the country’s electoral commission.
The opposition, however, has cried foul, claiming the poll was rigged in the ruling party’s favor.
Ana Korkia, a 28-year-old protester and Tbilisi resident, told Reuters that she had joined the demonstration to “show European leaders that ... this election [result] is not our choice.”
Demonstrations thus far have been largely peaceful.
Four opposition parties that won assembly seats have refused to recognize the poll’s outcome and have vowed to boycott all parliamentary activity.
Georgian Dream and the electoral commission, meanwhile, insist the results reflect the popular will.
The party’s western critics, including Brussels and Washington, claim that the poll was marred by irregularities, with both the European Union and NATO calling for the results to be investigated.
A monitoring mission run by the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported a number of violations but stopped short of saying the election was fraudulent.
Washington, which recently imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on Georgian officials for alleged “anti-democratic practices,” has also called for a “full investigation” of the election results.
“We have consistently urged the Georgian government ... to walk back its anti-democratic actions and return to its Euro-Atlantic path.
“We do not rule out further consequences if the Georgian government’s direction does not change.”
Shortly after the results were announced, Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s pro-western president, urged supporters to express their displeasure by demonstrating outside the parliament building in Tbilisi.
“Together, peacefully ... we will defend what is ours: your constitutional right to have your vote respected.”
“The methodology used and the support of most probably Russian FSB [Federal Security Service] types is shown in this election,” she said.
“It has become routine for many countries to rush to blame Russia for interference on any occasion,” a Kremlin spokesman said, calling the claims “completely baseless.”
The ruling party’s detractors, both domestic and foreign, have long accused it of seeking to deepen Georgia’s ties with Moscow, which have been frozen—on the official level at least—since 2008.
They also accuse Georgian Dream of jeopardizing the country’s chances of joining the European Union, which granted Georgia candidate status last year.
Brussels later suspended Georgia’s membership bid, however, after the country passed legislation this summer against perceived foreign influence.
Georgian Dream says it supports the country’s eventual membership in the 27-member European bloc.
Hungary’s Orban Backs Results
Following the poll, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Tbilisi, where he congratulated Georgian Dream on its electoral win and called the election “fair and democratic.”“I see that nobody dares question that this election was a fair and democratic election.”
Despite Western criticisms of the results, Orban said, “Nobody dared go that far.”
He also voiced support for Georgia’s EU accession bid, saying the ruling party’s electoral victory reflected the country’s “pro-European choice.”
Kobakhidze thanked Orban for Budapest’s “ardent” support for Georgia’s EU accession bid, saying Hungary had “played a special role in Georgia’s acquisition of candidate status.”
Since July 1, Hungary has held the European Council’s rotating six-month presidency.
More than a dozen EU foreign and European affairs ministers slammed Orban’s visit to Georgia’s capital, which they described as “premature.”
In a joint statement, they said the Hungarian leader “does not speak on behalf of the EU.”
“To ensure transparency, all authorized representatives are invited to observe the ballot recount process,” the commission said in an Oct. 29 statement.
