The ruling party wins the legislative elections in Georgia, amid accusations of fraud
Juan Pablo Duch
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, October 28, 2024, p. 27
Moscow. The Central Electoral Commission of Georgia, by making public yesterday the remaining 30 percent of the count of the legislative elections of the previous Saturday, ratified the victory of Georgian Dream, the ruling party for 12 years in that former Soviet republic of the South Caucasus.
The highest electoral body reported that with the manual recount of 100 percent of the ballots, Sueño Georgiano obtained 53.92 percent of votes, while the four main opposition groups gathered 37.81 percent.
The opposition – fragmented but which, despite its differences, had agreed to add votes to win and promote the accession process to the European Union – did not recognize these results, convinced that there was fraud.
The Coalition for Change, the opposition alternative with the most votes with 11 percent, renounced receiving the mandates of its deputies, announced yesterday the number one on its list of candidates, Nana Malashkia.
On behalf of his teammates, Malashkia noted: We all declare that these elections were falsified and the results are, therefore, illegitimate. We do not intend to legitimize the votes that were stolen from the Georgian people, we renounce our mandates as deputies.
The founder of the second opposition group, Unity–National Movement, which obtained 10.16 percent support, former president Mijail Saakashvili, urged from prison, in a message on social networks, to take to the streets to protest against what he called fraudulent result.
Of course, no one should enter Parliament. Now is not the time to try to clarify how we were deceived. It is time to start large protests to show the world that we fight for freedom and that we are a people who cannot stand injustice. We have little time!Saakashvili cried.
However, Georgia’s neighbors in the South Caucasus, Armenia and Azerbaijan, have already congratulated Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobajidze on the impressive triumph in the legislative elections on Saturday.
Nikol Pashinian, Armenian Prime Minister, congratulated with all my heart to Georgian Dream by his impressive triumph and stressed that it is a priority for Armenia to develop ties with Georgia, while the Azeri president, Ilham Aliyev, highlighted that Georgian citizens with their vote supported development, stability and traditional values.
Does not recognize results
For her part, in the midst of the first demonstrations of discontent last night in the capital and other Georgian cities, the country’s president, Salome Zurabishvili, expressed that she does not recognize the results and, after agreeing with the opposition leaders, summoned all her followers to attend a large protest rally in Tbilisi this Monday.
“I do not recognize these results. They cannot be recognized. It would be the same as admitting that Russia prevailed here, that Georgia submits to Russia. We have been witnesses and victims of, so to speak, a ‘Russian special operation’, a new form of hybrid war against our people, our country,” Zurabishvili asserted.
