In Georgia, the victory of the ruling party in the legislative elections definitively validated by the Electoral Commission, despite accusations of fraud

The Georgian Dream party, in office since 2012, is accused by its detractors of a pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of wanting to distance Georgia from the European Union, which it refutes.

The accusations will not have been enough. The Georgian Electoral Commission published on Saturday, November 16, the final results of the controversial legislative elections held at the end of October, which confirmed the victory of the ruling party, despite accusations of fraud launched by the opposition and requests for investigations from the West.

The ruling party, Georgian Dream, won 53.93% of the vote, against 37.79% for the alliance of opposition parties, which denounced a vote “stolen”. The Georgian Dream, in business since 2012, is accused by its detractors of pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of wanting to distance Georgia from the European Union, which it refutes.

Hundreds of opposition supporters gathered on Saturday in front of the Electoral Commission headquarters in the capital Tbilisi, the latest gathering in a series of demonstrations held since the vote which have sometimes brought together thousands of people. Georgian police arrested three protesters, according to the Interior Ministry. An investigation was also opened 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.

The opposition has 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.

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. Washington and Brussels, who were concerned about“irregularities”requested investigations. After the election, the Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidzé, on the contrary considered that the elections had been “entirely fair”before promising that “European integration” remained there “main priority” from Tbilisi. He declared that Parliament would meet within ten days after the publication of the final results, even without a decree of convocation by the president, who refuses to publish any.