Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili yesterday urged the West to support opposition protests against the official results of a weekend parliamentary election in which the governing party was declared victorious amid voting irregularities and allegations of Russian meddling.
Zourabichvili, who refused to recognize the official results, told The Associated Press in an interview that the south Caucasus nation has fallen victim to Russian pressure aimed at derailing its plans to join the EU.
“We’ve seen that Russian propaganda was directly used,” said Zourabichvili, a fierce critic of the governing party.
Photo: Reuters
She said Georgia’s government has been “working hand-in-hand with Russia” and probably had help from the Russian security services.
On Sunday, Zourabichvili stood alongside opposition leaders and urged Georgians to join a rally on the main street of the capital, Tbilisi, last night to protest what she called a “total falsification, a total stealing of your votes.”
She told the AP that she expects the US and the EU to back the protests.
Photo: Reuters
“We need to have the firm support of our European partners, of our American partners,” Zourabichvili said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on X that “the Georgian people embraced democracy yesterday” and urged Georgia’s political leaders to “respect the rule of law, repeal legislation that undermines fundamental freedoms, address deficiencies in the electoral process, and move Georgia toward its Euro-Atlantic future.”
The Kremlin has rejected the accusations of interference.
“We aren’t meddling in Georgia’s internal affairs, and we have no intention of meddling,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
He said it was the West that had tried to influence the outcome of the vote.
Asked about Zourabichvili’s call for the Georgians to join protests, he described it as an attempt to destabilize the country.
The Central Election Commission on Sunday said that the governing Georgian Dream party received 54.8 percent of Saturday’s votes with almost all ballots counted. The party — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — has become increasingly authoritarian over the past year, adopting laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech.
The EU suspended Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely, because of 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.
The election campaign in the nation of 3.7 million people, which borders Russia, was marked by a bitter fight for votes and allegations of a smear campaign. European electoral observers said the election took place in a “divisive” environment marked by intimidation and instances of vote buying, double voting and physical violence.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm named Trami at 2am yesterday, and is projected to move west-northwest toward waters east of Luzon Island, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Trami’s center was 700km east of Manila, or 1,180km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving in a northwesterly direction. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65kph, with gusts of up to 90kph, CWA data showed. The weather agency forecast the center of the storm would be over waters 470km east-northeast of Manila or 820km southeast of Oluanpi at 8am today, and urged ships
BIGGEST TROUBLEMAKER: China should not be carrying out any such exercises given the threat to regional peace and stability, Premier Cho Jung-tai said yesterday The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that live-fire Chinese drills in a province facing Taiwan are part of routine annual drills, but also possibly part of China’s “deterrence effect” in the waters of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, in a notice late on Monday, said an area around Niushan Island in China’s Fujian Province would be closed off for four hours from 9am yesterday for live-fire drills. Niushan sits just south of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands. The ministry in a statement said that the exercises are part of routine Chinese training and it was keeping a close watch, but
‘NO POSITION ON TAIWAN’: ‘I welcome the European Parliament’s focus on this issue and this important debate,’ European Commissioner Nicolas Schmit said on Tuesday The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not have any bearing on Taiwan’s participation in the UN or other international organizations, and rejected as unacceptable any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait. The motion passed by 432 votes in favor and 60 against with 71 abstentions during a plenary vote. The resolution condemned China’s continued military provocations against Taiwan, including drills around the nation on Monday last week. “Any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, particularly by means of force or coercion, will not be accepted and will
STOCKPILE: Once three new natural gas terminals are built, the nation could store up to 14 days of liquefied natural gas in the event of a blockade, an official said A Chinese blockade of Taiwan would be an act of war and have far-reaching consequences for international trade, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday, after drills by China last week practiced such a scenario. Beijing has over the past five years staged almost daily military activities around Taiwan, including war games that have practiced blockades and attacks on ports. China’s latest war games named “Joint Sword-2024B” were carried out on Monday last week, which Beijing said included simulating blockading ports and areas, and assaulting maritime and ground targets. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a legislative