Seen from Georgia, Brussels seems further away from today. The pro-European opposition coalition formed by four parties under the leadership of the President of the Republic Salome Zourabichvil, who took 37.5% of the preferences, did not emerge victorious in yesterday’s legislative elections. The Georgian Dream, the populist and pro-Russian party, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has led the country for 12 years, seems to have obtained the majority of preferences, with 54.08% of the votes. It seems, exactly. Because although the Central Election Commission of Georgia confirmed the victory of Georgian Dream and declared Giorgi Kalandrishvili president, there was no shortage of accusations of electoral fraud.
Oppositions arise: “Stolen elections”
Overnight, the opposition had refused to admit defeat. “We do not recognize the distorted results of stolen elections,” Tina Bokoutchava, head of the United National Movement (UNM), one of the four parties of the opposition coalition, declared in a press conference. Denouncing “a usurpation of power and a constitutional coup”, Nika Gvaramia, leader of the Akhali party, assured that the opposition had “deciphered the falsification scheme” of the vote. The pro-European parties accuse the majority party of a pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of distancing the country from the EU and NATO, which it would also like to join. Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and EU bodies also maintain that the vote in Georgia was marred by inequalities, pressure and tensions”. Yesterday, social media circulated videos in which voters are seen inserting more than one ballot into the voting box or brawls outside the polling stations between opposition supporters and those loyal to the ruling party.
The Tbilisi government had declared before the vote that it wanted to obtain three-quarters of the seats in Parliament, an indispensable level to amend the Constitution and, according to plans, ban pro-Western opposition parties. This, like the controversial law on “foreign agents” and the rule that severely limits the rights of LGBT+ people in a country of Orthodox Christian tradition where hostility towards sexual minorities remains strong, is clearly inspired by Moscow.
The European dream fades
Brussels had warned that Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union will depend on these elections. Georgia was rocked in May by large protests against a “foreign influence” law, modeled on Russia’s “foreign agents” legislation used to crush civil society. Brussels had then frozen the accession process, just as the United States had adopted sanctions against Georgian officials.
Among the first leaders to comment on the election result was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the only EU leader remaining close to Moscow, who welcomed the ruling party’s “overwhelming” victory. The president of neighboring Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev also congratulated the outgoing prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze on his party’s victory.
