When more than 99 percent of the votes had been counted, the country’s electoral system determined that the incumbent government party had won, and that the opposition had landed at 38 percent.
Georgia’s EU-friendly president Salomé Zurabishvili does not recognize the election results, which she describes as a “total falsification, total theft of your votes”, and says that her country fell victim to a Russian “special operation”, AP writes.
She is calling on residents to take to the main street in the capital Tbilisi at 7pm on Monday night to protest the alleged election fraud.
The election is accused of several irregularities, according to international observers on the ground, reports AFP. During the evening of election day, images were spread, among other things, of how bundles of ballot papers were pushed into the ballot boxes.
In a joint statement from, among others, the OSCE and NATO, which questions the validity of the result, the election was marked by “unfair conditions, pressures and tensions”.
Election observers: Deep concern
During the election day, the opposition parties raised the alarm that observers and voters had been threatened and attacked. Something that the European Parliament’s election observers themselves witnessed – such as physical assaults on observers and ballot boxes that were confiscated, they say in a statement on Sunday.
“We express deep concern about the democratic decline in Georgia. The implementation of yesterday’s election is unfortunately proof of this”.
EU Council President Charles Michel calls on the electoral authority in Georgia to quickly investigate allegations of irregularities during the election.
Alleging election fraud
Tina Bokuchava, leader of the opposition party UNM, opposes the result and claims electoral fraud.
We do not recognize the falsified results in the stolen election, Bokuchava said on Saturday evening.
The oligarch Ivanishvili (ruling party leader, ed. note) has stolen the election from the Georgian people and robbed them of their European future, she told Politico.
The electoral authority in the country has also been criticized for being far too close to the government and for rushing through an electoral reform before the election, writes the BBC.
The election has been described as a fateful choice, where the result is judged to determine whether the country is governed closer to the EU or Russia.