The Georgian United National Movement (UNM) does not recognize the results of today’s parliamentary elections. Its leader said it, AFP and Reuters reported today. A representative of the opposition Coalition called the change of results a constitutional coup, TASS reported.
According to the provisional results published by the Central Election Commission, the current ruling party Georgian Dream won today’s elections. “We do not recognize the falsified results of stolen elections,” UNM leader Tina Bokučava is quoted as saying by the AFP agency. Another opposition leader rejected the “usurpation of power and a constitutional coup,” according to AFP.
According to the results published by the Central Election Commission, the Georgian Dream party won roughly 53 percent of the vote.
Shortly after the polls closed, both Georgian Dream and the opposition declared themselves the winners of the elections. Estimates of the results published by various television stations shortly after the closing of the polling stations yielded mixed results. The founder of Georgian Dream, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, declared his group the winner of the election even before the partial results were published. The pro-European president Salome Zurabišviliová, on the other hand, wrote about the victory of “European Georgia” on the X social network.
Georgia has long been among the post-Soviet countries with the strongest Western orientation. However, Georgia’s relations with the West cooled sharply after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine the year before last February. The Georgian government refused to impose anti-Russian sanctions, and the rhetoric of the Georgian Dream became increasingly pro-Russian. Both the opposition and the West accuse the ruling party of introducing authoritarian policies in the style of the current Russian regime.
Georgia is a candidate for EU membership, but the twenty-seventh country has suspended the accession process due to the government’s actions.
Source: www.tyden.cz
