The European Union on Sunday requested an investigation into possible fraud, after the legislative elections in Georgia won by the pro-Russian ruling party, with the pro-European president of this Caucasian country denouncing a “falsification” of the vote and a “Russian operation” .
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, urged electoral authorities to “rapidly investigate” “irregularities” in a “transparent and independent” manner.
Expected on Monday for a two-day official visit, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, the only one in the European Union to have remained close to Moscow, and whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the Union, greeted him from Saturday the “crushing” victory of the ruling party.
Observers now fear a rise in tensions.
The opposition has called for demonstrations to be held on Monday in this former Soviet republic. Just like President Salomé Zourabichvili, breaking with the government, who criticized a “total falsification” of the elections.
“We are witnesses and victims of a special Russian operation, a modern form of hybrid warfare against the Georgian people,” she also said, without specifying her allegations.
Former President Mikheil Saakashvili, now imprisoned and also very critical of the government, also called for “massive demonstrations” in order to “show the world that we are fighting for freedom”.
The opposition claims that the Georgian Dream party, in office since 2012, is bringing this Caucasian country closer to Moscow and moving it away from membership in the European Union and NATO, an objective enshrined in its Constitution.
Mikheil Saakashvili said that “no one” should enter Parliament. One of the opposition components, the Coalition for Change, has already claimed to renounce its parliamentary mandates so as not to “give legitimacy” to this election.
Georgian Dream won 54.08% of the votes, compared to 37.58% for the pro-European coalition, according to the count carried out in more than 99% of constituencies, announced the central electoral commission.
The vote was “marred by inequalities [entre candidats]pressures and tensions”, however, estimated Sunday observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO and even bodies of the European Union.
The ruling party benefited from “numerous advantages”, notably financial, and there were “cases of vote buying”, violations of “vote secrecy”, they listed in a press release.
One of these observers, Spanish MEP Antonio López-Istúriz White, regretted a “rollback of democracy” in Georgia.
“Instability”
The opposition, which had initially claimed victory based on exit polls, refused to concede defeat.
The government should have 91 seats out of 150 in Parliament. A majority sufficient to govern, but below the three-quarters mark that he wanted to obtain to modify the Constitution and, under his project, ban pro-Western opposition parties.
The country is entering “a period of instability,” says analyst Gela Vasadze, of the Center for Strategic Analysis on Georgia. But “the opposition lacks charismatic leaders who could channel popular anger,” he continues.
Convinced that Georgian Dream “stole the election”, Mariam, 32, who does not give her name, does not know what attitude the opponents will adopt: “Continue again and again to demonstrate, or do what the Belarusians did, leave the country. »
Georgia was rocked in May by large protests against a “foreign influence” law, inspired by a Russian “foreign agents” law used to crush civil society.
Brussels subsequently froze the process of joining the European Union, and the United States took sanctions against Georgian officials.
The opposition accuses Georgian Dream of pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of distancing Georgia from the Union and NATO, which it also aims to join.
“Big neighbor”
Some Georgian Dream leaders are very critical of Westerners. Its leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili, called them a “global war party” that would treat Georgia, its victim, as “cannon fodder.”
This country on the shores of the Black Sea remains very marked by a brief war against the Russian army in 2008.
At its conclusion, Russia installed military bases in two Georgian separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose unilaterally proclaimed independence it recognized.
In this context, Georgian Dream presented itself as the only one capable of preventing a supposed “Ukrainization” of Georgia.
This is the argument that guided Temuri Titovi, a 52-year-old entrepreneur. “It’s like this, there is such a big neighbor. Whether you like it or not, you have to have a relationship with him.
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