The EU urges an investigation into the legislative elections in Georgia

Tbilisi. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, asked on Sunday for an investigation into the “irregularities” in the legislative elections in Georgia, a controversial election won by the ruling party, accused of approaching the Russian orbit, according to the results released by the electoral commission. .

With 99% of the vote, Georgian Dream, accused by the opposition of pro-Russian authoritarianism, obtained 54% of the votes compared to 37% for the opposition coalition, made up of four pro-European parties, indicated the president of the electoral commission, Giorgi Kalandarishvili.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union organizations considered, however, that the elections were “marred by inequalities.” [entre candidatos]pressures and tensions”.

Georgian Dream had “numerous benefits,” including financial ones, and there were “cases of vote buying” and violation of the “secrecy of the vote,” they said in a statement.

The president, Salome Zurabishvili, pro-Western and opposed to the government, denounced a “total falsification” of the elections, considering that her country is a “victim” of a “Russian operation”, and called for demonstrations on Monday.

The authorities must “quickly, transparently and independently investigate and prosecute electoral irregularities and complaints about them,” wrote Charles Michel in X.

Observers from the European Parliament noted that the vote represented a “democratic setback.”

“We fight for freedom”

The opposition contested the results. “We do not recognize the false results of a stolen election,” declared Tina Bokuchava, leader of the United National Movement (MNU), one of the coalition parties.

Nika Gvaramia, the leader of another party, Akhali, in turn denounced “a usurpation of power and a constitutional coup” by the government.

The former president of Georgia, Míkheil Saakashvili, who is pro-European and currently imprisoned, also called through Facebook to call for “massive demonstrations” to “show the world that we fight for freedom and that we are a people that does not tolerate injustice.”

The European Union warned that the result of these elections would influence Georgia’s chances of joining the EU, an aspiration that the former Soviet republic, with a population of approximately four million inhabitants, has enshrined in its Constitution.

Usually divided, the opposition forces managed to forge an unprecedented front against the government, formed among others by the MNU of former president Saakashvili.

The opposition alliance promised that in case of victory it would form a coalition government and carry out electoral and judicial reforms and the repeal of recently enacted laws.

Zurabishvili reported violent incidents at some polling stations.

Between Brussels and Moscow

The government announced on Sunday that the Hungarian Prime Minister, the ultra-conservative Viktor Orban, a firm ally of the ruling party and current president of the EU, would visit Georgia on Monday.

Georgian Dream, in power since 2012, is accused of having embarked on a spiral towards the implementation of a pro-Russian authoritarian regime distant from the European Union and NATO. Some of its leaders are very critical of the West.

This country on the shores of the Black Sea is still very marked by the Russian invasion in a brief war in 2008, after which Moscow installed military bases in two Georgian separatist regions, Absakhia and South Ossetia, which it recognized as independent states.

The ruling party campaigned presenting itself as the only one capable of preventing an alleged “Ukrainization” of Georgia.

The government declared before the elections that it aspired to obtain three quarters of the 150 seats in Parliament, a large majority that would allow it to change the Constitution and, according to its project, ban pro-Western opposition parties.

Georgia was rocked in May by huge opposition demonstrations against a “foreign influence” law modeled on Russian legislation that has served to crack down on dissent.

Brussels froze the EU accession process and the United States imposed sanctions on Georgian officials accused of authorizing a “brutal repression” against protesters.

The latest source of tension between Brussels and Tbilisi was the promulgation, earlier this month, of a law that restricts the rights of LGBT+ people.