Election victory of Russia-friendly party in Georgia sets stage for protests and possible violence – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

• Mass protests are expected in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday night after the ruling, Russia-friendly Georgian Dream party declared victory in disputed parliamentary elections this weekend.
• However, the country’s pro-Western president and Georgian opposition parties refused to recognize the results, saying the vote was neither free nor fair.
• Monday night’s protests could be met with a heavy-handed police response, similar to other demonstrations earlier this year.

Mass protests are expected in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday after the ruling, Russia-friendly Georgian Dream party claimed victory in disputed parliamentary elections this weekend.

The increasingly authoritarian party, which has been in power for the past 12 years, claimed another election victory after voting on Saturday, but the country’s pro-Western president and opposition parties refused to recognize the results, saying the vote was neither free nor fair.

The country’s pro-Western president, Salome Zurabishvili, called on the public to protest in central Tbilisi on Monday night, saying the opposition would not tolerate “election fraud” and that “no one can deprive Georgia of its European future.” the comments are reported by the Georgian news agency Interpress.

Central Election Commission of Georgia announced on its website on Monday that Georgian Dream had won 53.9% of the vote after counting 99% of the country’s electoral districts. Georgia has a vibrant opposition movement, but it is fragmented, with four major opposition coalitions each garnering around 8-11% of the vote.

Voter polls in the run-up to the election showed conflicting views of which way the vote might go, as pro-government and pro-opposition television networks broadcast conflicting exit polls on initial election results.

The election was seen as a pivotal moment for the former Soviet republic and perhaps the most important vote since independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with the vote seen as a choice about whether to remain in Russia’s orbit or pursue previously stated ambitions to join the European Union (EU). and NATO.

Call for protests

While Prime Minister of Georgia Iraklii Kobakhidze and the founder of “Georgian Dream” billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili announced the result was a demonstration of public support for the party’s policies and vision for Georgiaopposition parties quickly condemned and contested the election results, saying election fraud was widespread.

“We do not accept these stolen election results,” Tina Bokuchava, the leader of Georgia’s main opposition party United National Movement, said at a press briefing on Saturday evening. The party leads a coalition called the National Unity Movement, which received 10.1% of the vote.

Bokuchava accused the founder of “Georgian Dream” Bidzina Ivanishvili of stealing the “European future” of the Georgian people, calling on the opposition to unite to restore the “European future” of Georgia.

“We do not accept stolen election results and we are not going to recognize these stolen results… We will fight like never before for the return of our European future and we will not accept the results of stolen elections,” she said. This was reported by the Interpress news agency.

Georgian President Zurabishvili, a staunch critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party, called on citizens to stage a mass protest Monday night, calling the vote a “Russian special operation.”

“It was a complete fraud, a complete taking of your votes,” Zurabishvili told reporters surrounded by Georgian opposition party leaders in comments reported by Reuters. She called on Georgians to protest in Tbilisi “to announce to the world that we do not recognize these elections.”

Timothy Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said the opposition parties, which polled best in major cities, “could get a lot of people out on the streets” to protest. He warned that there was the possibility of further violence between protesters and security forces, similar to violent clashes earlier this year following controversial government policies.

“I would expect the ruling Georgia Dream regime to deploy a large number of security forces and use maximum pressure to confront the demonstrators,” Ash said in emailed comments, adding that he “doesn’t rule out the deployment of security forces from Russia to support (the founder of) Georgian Dream”) Ivanishvili,” he said, describing the election as “the last point of stress between Russia and the West.”

The EU, Washington and Moscow are watching

The election results are likely to have caused consternation in Europe and the US given the ongoing geopolitical struggle with Russia for influence over the former Soviet landscape. Georgian opposition parties have accused Russia of a significant role in vote-rigging ahead of the election, but Moscow strongly denies any wrongdoing.

Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov again stated that the accusations of meddling in the elections are “absolutely unfounded.”

“We strongly reject such accusations,” Peskov told reporters on Monday, according to comments provided by the TASS news agency and translated by Google. “They have become standard for many countries, and at the slightest moment, Russia is immediately accused of interference. No, this is not true, there was no interference, and the accusations are completely baseless,” he said.

Western officials noted the election came amid heightened political polarization, divisive campaign rhetoric and widespread reports of voter pressure, but also acknowledged that Georgia’s election day was largely orderly. .

The international election observation mission led by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said on Sunday that its international observers generally reported that the election in Georgia was “marred by an uneven playing field, pressure and tension, but voters were offered a wide choice ” in the ballot paper and that candidates can generally campaign freely.

The European Commission’s statement also noted that “the election day was generally procedurally well organized and conducted in an orderly manner,” but that voting took place in “a tense environment, with frequent violations of the secrecy of the vote and several procedural irregularities, as, as well as reports of voter intimidation and pressure, which negatively affected public trust in the process.”

In a separate statement Monday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement Sunday that the election environment “was characterized by the ruling party’s misuse of public resources, vote-buying and voter intimidation, which contributed to inequality and undermined public and international confidence in the possibility of a fair outcome.”

Blinken said the U.S. joined calls by international and local observers for a full investigation into “all reports of election-related violations” and called on Georgia’s leaders to “respect the rule of law, repeal legislation that undermines fundamental freedoms, and address flaws in the electoral process.” process together.”

Blinken concluded his statement by reminding Tbilisi that Georgia’s goals for European and Euro-Atlantic integration “require the government to respect the rights of members of civil society and the fundamental freedoms of all Georgian citizens.”

It is not known how committed Georgia remains to pro-Western integration.

This was announced by Prime Minister Kobakhidze on Monday European integration remained the main foreign policy priority for the government, and by 2030 it is planned to join the bloc. However, in recent years, the domestic and foreign policy of the ruling party has become increasingly authoritarian, backing away from its commitment to strengthening democratic values ​​in line with its aspirations for EU membership.

As well as the rejection of media freedom and LGBT rights, the Georgian Dream this summer’s introduction of a Russian-style “foreign agent” law aimed at curbing perceived foreign influence was seen as a further move towards Kremlin-style authoritarian rule, and mass protests were met with a harsh police response.

The party initially supported Georgia’s pro-Western trajectory, but has since grown colder on that front, and the party’s anti-democratic policies have been met with concern in Brussels, and EU accession talks were frozen earlier this year.

Georgian Dream campaigned on an anti-war platform, arguing that voting for pro-Western opposition parties would put Georgia on a path of direct conflict with Russia, as in Ukraine.