Thousands
of Georgians demonstrate against contested election results
Mood among
protesters is one of deflation as some say Georgian Dream has already won
Pjotr Sauer
in Tbilisi
Mon 28 Oct
2024 19.58 EDT
Thousands of
Georgians have taken to the streets in the capital, Tbilisi, to rally against
the results of a contested weekend parliamentary election in which the
increasingly anti-western governing party was declared victorious amid reports
of irregularities and voter intimidation.
The
demonstration outside the parliament in the city centre was organised by the
country’s pro-western opposition, which has refused to concede defeat and has
accused the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party of election rigging.
The
pro-western Georgian president, Salome Zourabichvili, whose role is largely
ceremonial, said on Sunday she did not recognise the official results and
claimed the country had fallen victim to a “Russian special operation” aimed at
pulling it back into Moscow’s orbit and derailing its plan to join the European
Union.
“They stole
your vote and tried to steal your future. But no one has the right to do that,
and you will not allow it,” Zourabichvili told the crowd on Monday, who waved
EU and Georgian flags.
Opposition
protest against parliamentary election results near the parliamentary building
in Tbilisiepa11689221 Supporters of opposition parties attend a protest in
Tbilisi, Georgia, 28 October 2024, opposing the results of the parliamentary
elections held on 26 October. Nearly 20 parties competed for seats in the
country’s highest legislative body, which comprises 150 deputies. The ruling
Georgian Dream party, in power for 12 years, won with 54.3 percent of the vote.
In response, several parties announced a boycott of the parliament, and the
opposition Coalition for Changes declined both parliamentary mandates and state
funding. EPA/DAVID MDZINARISHVILI
She told
Reuters that she believed “the methodology used and the support of most
probably Russian FSB [federal security service] types is shown in this
election.”
Russia
rejected the allegations of election interference. The FSB, the main successor
to the Soviet-era KGB, was unavailable for comment.
At the
protest, several opposition leaders demanded new elections, to be overseen by
an international commission, and announced that their parties would not take up
their seats in parliament, setting the stage for a prolonged political crisis.
The
country’s electoral commission announced on Sunday that the increasingly
authoritarian GD secured 54% of the vote, winning 89 seats in the parliament.
Voters in
the Caucasus country of almost 4 million people had headed to the polls on
Saturday in a watershed election to decide whether GD, which has been in power
since 2012 and steered the country into a conservative course away from the
west and closer to Russia, should get another four-year term.
The Georgian
opposition contends that the ruling party has engaged in widespread election
tampering, citing stark discrepancies between the initial results and an exit
poll conducted by western pollsters that showed the ruling party winning only
40% of the vote.
A
preliminary report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) said it “noted reports of intimidation, coercion and pressure on
voters”, calling the conduct of the election evidence of “democratic
backsliding” in the country.
The result
thwarts the opposition’s hopes for a united pro-western coalition of four blocs
and in effect stalls the country’s aspirations for EU integration.
“I am here
because the government rigged the elections, stealing our voices and our right
to choose our future,” said Kato Bochorishvili, a 21-year-old economics
student. “We want the world to know that we chose Europe, not Russia. I just
hope the world can hear us,” she said.
Support for
the pro-western opposition groups generally comes from urban and younger
voters, who envision their political future with the EU.
GD, led by
the secretive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has made conservative and
illiberal values central to its campaign, alongside saying that the pro-western
opposition would pull Georgia into a conflict with Russia, similar to
Ukraine’s.
The US and
the European Union urged full investigations of the result of Saturday’s
election.
Antony
Blinken, the US secretary of state, criticised “misuse of public resources,
vote buying, and voter intimidation”, which he said “contributed to an uneven
playing field”.
Matthew
Miller, US state department spokesperson, later added that the US was in talks
with European partners on what would be an appropriate body to investigate
reports of violations. He added that Washington could take action if the
government does not heed calls to “walk back its anti-democratic actions and
return to its Euro-Atlantic path”.
Germany’s
foreign ministry condemned “significant irregularities” and France also
expressed concerns over “irregularities observed before and during the vote”,
urging a full investigation.
But western
officials stopped short of declaring the election stolen or falsified and
refrained from calling for a boycott of the results.
Dmitry
Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, said the election result was “the choice of the
Georgian people” and accused the west of trying to destabilise the situation.
Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, accused the opposition of
attempting to “shake the constitutional order”, local media reported. He said
his government remained committed to European integration.
In a move
that angered fellow EU leaders and the Georgian opposition, Viktor Orbán landed
in Tbilisi on Monday after becoming the first western leader to congratulate
the ruling GD party for its “overwhelming victory”.
Orbán, who
has recently cultivated close ties with the GD party, was spotted entering the
Marriott Hotel just steps away from where the protest was taking place.
It is not
immediately clear where the Georgian opposition goes from here, with many in
the country visibly frustrated by what they say is a lack of western support.
The election
results also suggest GD retains support from a core group of Georgian voters,
particularly in industrial heartlands and conservative, poorer regions where
economic progress has been slow and the appeal of Europe feels distant and
faint.
Last spring,
tens of thousands of people already protested in Tbilisi to demonstrate against
a controversial “foreign agents’” bill that critics argued was designed to
stifle the country’s media and NGOs. But those protests gradually faded after a
police crackdown and a series of arrests. Monday’s demonstrations were
significantly smaller, suggesting the protest movement lacks momentum.
Anton
Shekhovtsov, the director of the Vienna-based Centre for Democratic Integrity,
said Europe’s cautious response showed it did not “have the spirit and
consensus to openly challenge the Georgian government. Without any clear,
explicit support either from the election monitoring missions or the EU,
Georgians are left alone today in their fight for a European future.”
On Monday,
some protesters appeared deflated.
“Georgian
Dream has already won,” said Irma Khoperia, a 55-year-old artist. “They will
never give up power voluntarily. They’ll turn this country into a
dictatorship.”
GD has been
accused by critics at home and abroad of plans to move the country in an
authoritarian direction after Ivanishvili vowed to ban all the leading
opposition parties and remove opposition lawmakers if his party was re-elected.
Like others
at the protest that night, Khoperia called on the west to sanction the GD
leader and his party.
“We would
like the west to support us more. They should stand by our side and speak out
against this vote theft,” Khoperia said.
Other
protesters vowed to return to the streets until a new election was held.
“It’s very
difficult, but I remain hopeful – otherwise, I wouldn’t be here,” said Tekle
Makashvili, a PhD student in Tbilisi. “We will keep fighting until this country
is free again.”
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