The ruling Georgian Dream party emerged victorious in the legislative elections on Saturday October 26, the electoral commission announced on Sunday 27 after the counting of more than 99% of the votes. The pro-Russian formation of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili won 54% of the votes while four opposition parties and coalitions entered Parliament, together accumulating 37% of the votes. These results, contested by some of the latter who denounce irregularities, could distance the post-Soviet republic from membership in the European Union.
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The vote was seen, both in the country and by observers of its political life, as crucial for the future of the country: it could define whether the country turns to the European Union Or more towards Russia. And this against a backdrop of war in Ukraine.
The participation rate was 58%, which is one of the highest observed in ten years. With 54% of the votes, according to the now official results, the Georgian Dream emerged victorious from the vote, reports our correspondent in Tbilisi, Régis Genté.
A victory that he celebrated by claiming to have received a comfortable majority, but very far from the constitutional majority of 75% that he said he was still aiming for on Saturday afternoon. THE pro-Russian partythrough his declarations and the polls he made public, also said that only two opposition parties would enter the future Parliament. This was to considerably strengthen its number of seats in the assembly, taking into account the rule of full proportional representation.
But the Georgian Dream will have to share seats with four other opposition parties and coalitions. According to these official results, the ruling party should occupy around 60% of the 150 parliamentary seats. The remaining 40% being shared between its opponents, all signatories of the “ charter » pro-European proposed by the president Salomé Zourabichvili.
Two of the four opposition groups refuse to recognize the results. They denounce in particular an electoral campaign where the ruling party would have made massive use of “ administrative resources » and pressure of all kinds to recover the votes of Georgians. “ We do not recognize the distorted results of stolen elections », Declared at a press conference, Tina Bokoutchava, head of the United National Movement (MNU), one of the four parties in the opposition coalition.
Denouncing “ a usurpation of power and a constitutional coup d’état », Nika Gvaramia, leader of the Akhali party, assured that the opposition had “ deciphered the tampering scheme » of the ballot.
All four parties promise to take to the streets to defend their vote.
Entry into the EU subject to election results, Brussels warned
Brussels has warned that Georgia’s chances of entering the EU would depend on these elections in this former Soviet republic in the Caucasus of around four million inhabitants, which has enshrined this aspiration in its constitution.
Georgia was rocked in May by large protests against a law on “ foreign influence », inspired by Russian legislation on “ foreign agents » used to crush civil society. Brussels subsequently froze Georgia’s accession process to the EU and the United States took sanctions against Georgian officials.
Another cause of tensions with Westerners: the recent promulgation of a law severely restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in this country of Orthodox Christian tradition where hostility towards sexual minorities remains strong.
The first foreign leader to react on Saturday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the only EU leader remaining close to Moscow, welcomed the victory “ overwhelming » of the ruling party. The President of neighboring Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev congratulated outgoing Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on his party’s victory.
Fights and cancellation of ballots after suspicions of ballot stuffing
Monitored by international observers, the vote was marked by several incidents, widely relayed online, such as this video of a fight in a polling station in Tbilisi or scuffles at the headquarters of the United National Movement.
Images appearing to show ballot stuffing in Sadakhlo, a village in the east, were widely shared by the opposition. The election commission canceled the ballots in this office.
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