[Mis à jour le 16/11 à 14h]
It’s a controversial victory. In Georgia, thehe final results of the controversial legislative elections held at the end of October confirmed the victory of the ruling party, the Electoral Commission of this Caucasian country announced on Saturday. The ruling Georgian Dream party, in place since 2012, won 53.93% of the vote against 37.79% for an alliance of opposition parties, according to the final results communicated by the Commission. A result which is controversial since the latter is accused by his detractors of a pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of wanting to distance Georgia from the European Union, which he refutes.
Following the results, the opposition denounced a vote ” stolen “ and accused, among other methods, the government of buying votes and subjecting voters to pressure, particularly in sparsely populated areas. The Georgian president, Salomé Zourabichvili, breaking with the government, denounced a sophisticated system of fraud following a “Russian methodology” before refusing to respond to a summons from the prosecution to detail his accusations.
A decisive election for Georgia
Several demonstrations in the country
She called for a new vote on Monday, refusing to publish the decree convening the newly elected Parliament.
“Today we are facing a crisis”she assured, affirming that it is necessary to organize “new elections so that Georgia can have a legitimate Parliament, a legitimate government”.
Several hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the headquarters of the electoral commission to protest against these results. Georgian police arrested three protesters, according to the Interior Ministry. Student protests also took place Friday evening at Georgian universities and the opposition called for mass demonstrations during the opening session of Parliament.
The ministry also announced the opening of an investigation against a member of the electoral commission who threw black paint in the face of its president, Guiorgui Kalandarichvili, disrupting the announcement of the results.
Concerns from Brussels and Washington
Lately, these turmoil have greatly worried the West, while itSome leaders of the Georgian Dream, including its leader, the powerful and extremely wealthy Bidzina Ivanishvili, have increased hostile declarations towards Western Europe and the United States. Following the vote, Brussels and Washington called for investigations, expressing concern about “ irregularities ». At the beginning of November, a polling institute that followed the vote and an organization of electoral observers declared that analysis of the results suggested widespread fraud.
The West is especially concerned about the proximity of the elected power to Russia, while membership in the EU, like that in NATO, is in Georgia's project, even appearing in the country's constitution. After the promulgation in the spring of a law “ on foreign influence » inspired by Russian legislation which the Kremlin uses to muzzle civil society and the opposition, Brussels had frozen the accession process as a form of protest. Georgia also restricts the rights of LGBT+ people, another reason for discord with the EU.
This election was a test in the perspective of Georgia's accession to the European Union, according to the latter. Not sure the result would be in his favor.
(With AFP)
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