Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, has won 54 percent of the votes in the Georgian constituencies in Saturday’s parliamentary elections.
This is according to the country’s electoral commission, writes the news agency Reuters on Sunday morning.
Over 99 percent of the constituencies have been counted, says the electoral commission.
On Saturday evening, both Georgian Dream and a coalition of opposition parties declared themselves the election winners.
Before the election, the opposition had portrayed it as a crucial crossroads where Georgians would have to choose whether to move in the direction of the EU or forge closer ties with Russia.
Here the opposition itself represents the desire to get closer to the West and the EU.
On Saturday evening, it was announced from the opposition that it would not recognize a result that gave victory to the ruling party.
The election had been “stolen from the Georgian people”, said Tina Bokuchava, leader of the opposition coalition, the United National Movement.
– We do not recognize the falsified results of the stolen election, she said according to the BBC television station.
It was only a few minutes after the polling stations closed on Saturday evening at 18:00 Danish time that Bidzina Ivanishvili proclaimed Georgian Dream as the winner.
The multi-billionaire founded and controls the party, which has been in power since 2012.
On Saturday evening, he praised his party for the good election result.
– It is rarely seen in the world that the same party achieves such great success in such a difficult situation. It is a good indicator of the talent of the Georgian people, he said in a speech according to Reuters.
According to Georgian Dream itself, the party wants Georgia to become a member of the EU. But the EU has criticized that the Georgian government is not creating the changes in the country that are necessary to be able to gain membership.
On the contrary, the country is distancing itself from the EU’s values, it has been said from the union.
Among other things, the criticism has focused on a new law which, according to the government, was about countering interference from foreign states.
According to the EU, the law damages free media and political opponents.
In 2022, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Georgia applied to join the EU. At the end of 2023, Georgia was made a candidate country.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
