Georgian Prime Minister Dismisses Election Fraud Allegations Amidst Presidential Call for Public Gathering

Georgia’s prime minister has lauded a “landslide” election outcome, refuting accusations of electoral manipulation and violence. “Irregularities happen everywhere, in every country,” Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party stated to the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in an exclusive interview. Official preliminary results from Georgia’s election commission indicated that the ruling Georgian Dream secured an outright majority of 54%, despite exit polls conducted for opposition TV channels suggesting that four opposition parties had won. Georgia’s pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, has denounced the “total falsification” of the ballot and urged opposition supporters to gather outside parliament on Monday. Election observers in this South Caucasus state, which borders Russia, have voiced concerns about an “uneven playing field” in the election, implying that the extent of vote violations might have influenced the result. The US and European Union have supported the monitors’ demands for an independent investigation. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken implored Georgia’s leaders to “respect the rule of law, repeal legislation that undermines fundamental freedoms, and address deficiencies in the electoral process together”. However, the prime minister maintained that out of 3,111 polling stations, incidents occurred in “just a couple of precincts,” but that in all the others “the environment was completely peaceful.” Georgian Dream, known as GD, has demonstrated an increasingly authoritarian stance, recently enacting Russian-style laws targeting media outlets, non-government groups receiving foreign funding, and the LGBT community. The European Union has responded by suspending Georgia’s bid to join the EU, accusing it of “democratic backsliding.” Tbilisi was granted candidate status only last December, and an estimated 80% of Georgians aspire to be part of the 27-country union. Even before the results were released, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, an EU leader, congratulated Georgian Dream on securing a fourth term and is scheduled to travel to Georgia on Monday. The ruling party states its eagerness to initiate discussions on revitalizing its EU bid, but Orban’s arrival in Tbilisi two days after a contested election is unlikely to be well-received in Brussels. Orban is perceived as Russia’s closest ally in the EU, and the European Parliament has labeled his government a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy.” GD views itself as closely aligned with Orban’s approach to social conservatism. Maka Bochorishvili, the party’s EU integration committee head, informed the BBC: “Being conservative is not forbidden, family values are part of European values as well.” Responding to widespread reports of alleged vote fraud in the election, Charles Michel, the head of the member states’ European Council, declared that “alleged irregularities must be seriously clarified and addressed.” “Of course we have to address these irregularities happening on the day of the election or before,” the Georgian prime minister told the BBC. “But the general content of the elections was in line with legal principles and the principle of democratic elections.” The four opposition groups have refused to acknowledge the election result, condemning it as falsified, and have accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of stealing the vote. Surrounded by opposition leaders, Salome Zourabichvili stated that the vote could not be recognized and called on the populace to gather in Rustaveli Street, the major avenue that runs past parliament, to “defend our constitutional right.” She also accused Russia of interfering in the vote without providing specific details, although Nika Gvaramia of the opposition alliance Coalition for Change has made allegations of an “openly planned special operation by Russian intelligence services.” Coalition for Change and another opposition group, United National Movement, have declared their intention to boycott parliament. The opposition will now occupy 61 seats in the 150-seat parliament, while Georgian Dream will hold 89 – a majority, but insufficient to enact the constitutional changes it desired, specifically to carry out its threat to ban opposition parties. Two exit polls conducted by Western pollsters for opposition TV channels indicated that the opposition had won, and that GD had secured a maximum of 42%, not 54%. In his BBC interview, Kobakhidze accused the opposition of lying, contending that they had also claimed the vote had been falsified in 2016, 2020, and 2021. “Of course they have now no other way, so they have to tell their supporters that either they were lying or the government rigged the elections.” An electronic vote-counting system was utilized for the first time on Saturday, which the prime minister stated made the election impossible to rig: “There is zero space for manipulation.” The chairman of Georgia’s election commission, who oversaw the new system, praised the vote as largely peaceful and free, but a significantly different account has emerged from monitoring groups that have presented their initial findings. Georgia’s Isfed group documented a multitude of violations, including bribery, intimidation, and ballot-stuffing, and asserted that the result “cannot be seen as truly reflecting the preferences of Georgian voters.” Per Eklund, a former EU ambassador who was part of the National Democratic Institute delegation, stated that it was evident the pre-election period, in particular, had failed to meet democratic standards. “Voter intimidation… up to and on election day severely undermined the process,” he said. Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has in recent months escalated anti-Western rhetoric, accusing an unidentified “global war party” of aiming to draw his country into the war in Ukraine. His unsubstantiated claims have led to concerns that his party is adopting Russian-style laws and reverting to Russia’s sphere of influence, 16 years after a five-day war in which Russian troops invaded Georgia. Russian commentators have widely welcomed Georgian Dream’s victory as an indication that Georgia will begin to reorient itself towards Moscow. Furthermore, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, criticized the Georgian president’s comments rejecting the election result and expressing skepticism about Georgia’s accession to the EU. “To think the EU can still offer anyone a ‘European future’ is simply stupid,” she said on social media. In his BBC interview, Irakli Kobakhidze denied the opposition’s accusation that the government was pro-Russian and “pro-Putinist.” He stated they had been attempting to damage the government’s reputation among Georgia’s 3.7 million population. The prime minister noted that Georgia was the sole country in its region with no diplomatic relations with Russia, a situation attributed to Russia’s occupation of 20% of Georgian territory since the 2008 war.