Thousands of people gathered in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, late on Monday to protest the results of parliamentary elections after the country’s president denounced them as rigged in favor of Moscow.
The US called for an investigation and the EU was critical of the vote, in which the ruling Georgian Dream party — which advocates closer ties with Russia — claimed victory.
Pro-European opposition parties denounced the outcome as falsified.
Photo: EPA-EFE
They drew support from Salome Zourabichvili, who holds the largely ceremonial post of president and appealed to backers to protest in the capital.
“Your voice was stolen and they attempted to steal your future as well, but no one has the right to do that,” Zourabichvili told people outside the parliament building.
Organizers estimated the crowd in the tens of thousands, while police did not give numbers.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The rally, which lasted just over 90 minutes, had blocked off traffic on the city’s main avenue and remained peaceful.
Members of the opposition declined their parliament mandates and demanded a new election overseen by international authorities.
The Georgian Dream party, which has ruled since 2012, won 54 percent support for another four years in power, the Georgian Central Election Commission said.
Photo: AFP
Four opposition parties backing a pro-European charter drawn up by Zourabichvili garnered a combined 38 percent, the commission said.
Zourabichvili urged Georgians to join protests against what she called a “Russian special operation” aimed at restoring Moscow’s influence and thwarting Georgia’s goal of membership in the EU and NATO.
The speaker of Georgia’s parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, accused the president of spreading “disinformation” aimed at “destabilizing the country alongside the opposition,” as he defended the result at a news briefing Monday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
One protester, Gia Ubilava, said that he had been driven out of his home in the breakaway region of Abkhazia by Russian forces.
“And now they want me to go back to them and live together in a Russian-run state?” he said. “I don’t think so.”
Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused a “global war party” in the West of plotting to oust his government and to push Georgia into a conflict with the Kremlin.
The said insists it is still committed to European integration even as it has improved ties with Moscow.
International observers led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized “highly divisive campaign rhetoric and widespread reports of pressure on voters” during the election.
While they did not challenge the overall result, their election report said that “the many advantages taken by the ruling party contributed to an already uneven playing field.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a “full investigation” of alleged election violations in a statement that refrained from questioning the result.
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