Georgia braces for protests after contested vote

Georgia braces for protests after contested vote

Georgia's opposition has accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of 'stealing' this weekend's parliamentary election

Georgia's pro-Western opposition called for protests Monday after disputed elections that it denounced as "stolen", while the country's president alleged in an interview with AFP that the vote was rigged using "sophisticated" methods with Russian help.

The Caucasus country -- rocked by mass protests earlier this year -- has plunged into political uncertainty since Saturday's vote, with Brussels, Washington, France and Germany denouncing "irregularities".

Its ruling Georgian Dream party has for months been accused by the opposition of steering Tbilisi away from its goal of joining the EU and back into Russia's orbit.

Speaking to AFP, Georgia's pro-European president Salome Zurabishvili claimed the use of "quite sophisticated" fraudulent schemes in the weekend vote.

"It's very difficult to accuse a government, and that's not my role, but the methodology is Russian," added the president who has called for protests. 

She said that it was "difficult to deal with" Russia because it does not respect international norms, calling the country "threatening".

The president had earlier declared the election results "illegitimate", alleging a "Russian special operation" to interfere with the election -- a claim swiftly rejected by the Kremlin, whose spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "there was no intervention".

A group of Georgia's leading election watchdogs, including the "My Vote" coalition, told a news conference Monday that they had uncovered evidence of complex, large-scale fraud that altered the election outcome in favour of the ruling party.

They called for a swift investigation and demanded the annulment of at least 15 percent of all the votes cast in the elections, claiming to have documented evidence of election rigging at dozens of polling stations.

Defying the EU's concerns over the vote, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- current holder of the bloc's rotating presidency and the Kremlin's closest EU associate -- was scheduled to arrive Monday for a two-day visit to Tbilisi to show his support for the ruling Georgian Dream.

- 'Irregularities' -

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday insisted EU membership remained a "main priority" for his party and said he expected a "reset" with Brussels.

According to near-complete results announced by the electoral commission, Georgian Dream won 53.92 percent of the vote, compared with the 37.78 percent garnered by the union of four pro-Western opposition alliances.

The result announced by the electoral commission gave Georgian Dream 89 seats in the 150-member parliament -- enough to govern but short of the supermajority it had sought to pass a constitutional ban on all the main opposition parties.

The opposition has refused to concede defeat to a party it accuses of pro-Kremlin authoritarianism.

Opposition politicians have said they will renounce their mandates and will not enter the newly elected parliament.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken blasted what he called the "misuse of public resources, vote buying, and voter intimidation" which he said "contributed to an uneven playing field".

An EU parliament mission said the vote was evidence of Tbilisi's "democratic backsliding", adding that it had seen instances of "ballot box stuffing" and the "physical assault" of observers.

Germany's foreign ministry condemned "significant irregularities" and France also expressed "concerns" over "irregularities observed before and during the vote", urging a full investigation.

Zurabishvili joined opposition calls for protests -- including from jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who led mass protests 20 years ago that first set Georgia on a pro-EU path.  

Tbilisi had already been rocked by massive demonstrations this year over several laws passed by Georgian Dream that the opposition denounced as repressive.

Political analyst Ghia Nodia said he expected "large-scale protests" but not "serious upheaval".

"I anticipate Georgian Dream will launch a full-scale offensive against opponents, civil activists, and independent media," he said.

Nodia believed that while "electoral violations may have swayed the election outcome", the ruling party still maintained a "solid support base".

- Orban expected-

Orban, who has retained ties to Moscow despite the 2022 Ukraine invasion, is due in Tbilisi on Monday evening.

Commenting on the visit, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Orban "does not represent" the bloc on foreign affairs.

Orban congratulated Georgian Dream for an "overwhelming victory" on Saturday, before preliminary results were published.

Other EU figures condemned the vote -- with some backing the call of the opposition. 

"The President of Georgia has announced that the parliamentary elections were falsified. Europe must now stand with the Georgian people," Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X Sunday.  

Opposition parties lined up to denounce the vote. 

"This is an attempt to steal Georgia's future," said Tina Bokuchava, leader of Saakashvili's United National Movement.

Nika Gvaramia, leader of the liberal Akhali party, said the way the vote was held constituted "a constitutional coup" by the government.

Georgia was rocked in May by huge demonstrations against a law on "foreign influence", that critics said mirrored Russian legislation used to silence Kremlin critics. 

The United States imposed sanctions on Georgian officials following the protests.  

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Originally published as Georgia braces for protests after contested vote