Georgians protest to denounce ruling party win in elections

Thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets to protest against the disputed parliamentary election after the pro-Western opposition and president called for mass protests against what they called a “rigged” vote.

Demonstrators gathered outside the main parliament building in the capital, Tbilisi, on Monday to denounce the election results that saw the ruling Georgian Dream party win by 54 percent of the votes.

The country – rocked by mass protests earlier this year – has plunged into political uncertainty since Saturday’s vote, with Brussels, Washington, France and Germany condemning “irregularities”. Georgian election monitors claimed to have uncovered a large-scale fraud scheme that altered the election outcome in favour of the ruling party.

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

For months, the opposition has accused Georgian Dream of steering Tbilisi away from its goal of joining the EU and back into Russia’s orbit.

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili has accused Russia of election meddling. [Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters]

Georgia’s pro-Europe President Salome Zourabichvili had urged Georgians to show the world “that we do not recognise these elections”.

The leader, whose powers are mainly ceremonial, said that she believed Russian-style “methodology” was at play in the election. On Sunday, she had referred to the results as a “Russian special operation”.

“We’ve seen that Russian propaganda was directly used,” Zourabichvili told the Associated Press news agency, adding that Georgia’s government has been “working hand-in-hand with Russia” and likely received support from Russian security services.

She told AP that she expects the US and the EU to back the protests.

“We need to have the firm support of our European partners, of our American partners,” Zourabichvili said.

Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said they had registered incidents of vote-buying, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing that could have affected the outcome. However, they stopped short of saying the election was rigged.

Russia denied charges of election interference.

“We strongly reject such accusations – as you know, they have become standard for many countries. At the slightest thing, they immediately accuse Russia of interference… There was no interference, and the accusations are absolutely unfounded,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Peskov said the vote was “the choice of the Georgian people” and said it was the West, not Russia, that was trying to destabilise the situation.

Demonstrators look at a photographer as they hold posters during an opposition protest against the results of the parliamentary election in Tbilisi on Monday, October 28, 2024. [Emma Burrows/AP Photo]

Full probe into alleged irregularities

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded by accusing the opposition on Monday of attempting to “shake the constitutional order” of the country, local media reported. He also said his government remained committed to European integration.

European officials, along with the US, levelled criticism at his government.

The US State Department on Monday joined the calls for a full investigation of all reports of election-related violations in Georgia. Earlier, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accused the government of a “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.

The German Federal Foreign Office condemned “significant irregularities”, and France also expressed “concerns” over “irregularities observed before and during the vote”, urging a full investigation.

Meanwhile, on Monday, NATO and the European Union joined the chorus calling for a full probe into alleged irregularities in the vote.

“The EU recalls that any legislation that undermines the fundamental rights and freedoms of Georgian citizens and runs counter to the values and principles upon which the EU is founded must be repealed,” the European Commission said in a joint statement with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

The EU suspended Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely due to a Russian-style “foreign influence law” passed in June. Many Georgians viewed Saturday’s vote as a pivotal referendum on the opportunity to join the EU.

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, arrived Monday for a two-day visit to Tbilisi.

He congratulated Georgian Dream on Saturday on its election victory.

“Georgia is a conservative, Christian and pro-Europe state,” he wrote on the social media platform X after his arrival on Monday. “Instead of useless lecturing, they need our support on their European path.”

Initial figures suggested that voters turned out in the highest numbers since Georgian Dream was first elected in 2012.

The party has vowed to continue the push toward EU accession but also “reset” ties with Georgia’s former imperial master, Russia.