President Salomé Zourabichvili, who denounced electoral fraud in the legislative elections in Georgia, announced that she would not attend a summons from the prosecutor to detail her accusations, as part of an investigation opened Wednesday by the prosecution.
At the same time, a new counting of votes was ordered in 14% of polling stations, selected at random. It has been underway since Tuesday noon, without knowing the results yet.
The prosecution announced in a press release that it had “opened an investigation into the alleged falsification of the legislative elections” on Saturday in Georgia, the results of which are rejected by the pro-European opposition.
He specified that the pro-European head of state, breaking with the government, was “summoned” for Thursday, because he considers that it “may have evidence regarding possible election tampering”.
End of non-receipt
“I have no intention of going to the prosecutor’s office”retorted in the evening Ms. Zourabichvili, who had denounced a system ” sophisticated “ of fraud during these legislative elections.
According to the official results, they were won by the Georgian Dream, in power since 2012 in this former Caucasian Soviet republic and accused of pro-Russian authoritarian drift by the opposition.
But they were tainted with“irregularities”affirms the latter as well as several European chancelleries.
Georgian oligarch and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, delivers a speech during a rally at the party headquarters after the announcement of the results of the parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, October 26, 2024 / Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE / AFP
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze thanked the prosecutor’s office for deciding to start investigations and expressed his support for “the call from the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to investigate all violations” electoral rules.
“The elections were entirely fair, free, competitive and clean”he insisted, however.
Not enough to convince the strong Georgia opposition group which, in a press release, mocked an investigation ” absurd “ of “Russian-controlled prosecutor’s office” on “a Russian special operation”.
Freedom “abducted”
In recent days, international observers have expressed doubts about the proper conduct of the vote. Brussels and US President Joe Biden have explicitly asked Tbilisi to open investigations into these allegations of“electoral irregularities”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented that Russia was, according to him, the real winner of the election. “She took away freedom” to the Georgians, he denounced in an interview published on Wednesday.
On Monday, the Georgian head of state told AFP that a system of fraud following “a Russian methodology” had allowed the Georgian Dream party to win, notably via electronic voting, “vote buying” or even “pressures” on the voters.
As a whole, the opposition, led by Ms. Zourabichvili, has been denouncing an election since Saturday evening “stolen”.
The Kremlin, for its part, rejected “unfounded accusations” and refuted any interference by Moscow in the electoral process.
A historic power in the region, Russia has military bases in two Georgian separatist regions whose independence it has recognized: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Tensions
Georgia’s President Salome Zurabichvili takes part in an opposition rally to protest the results of the parliamentary elections which showed a victory for the ruling Georgian Dream party in front of the parliament building in central Tbilisi, October 28, 2024 / Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE / AFP
Discordant voice within the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, close to Vladimir Putin, for his part congratulated the Georgian Dream for its victory in the elections “free and democratic”during a controversial visit Monday and Tuesday to Tbilisi.
This strong support, the only one among the Twenty-Seven, made Brussels cringe, at a time when Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU until the end of the year.
The Georgian Dream is accused by its opponents of directing the country towards Moscow and moving it away from the objective, enshrined in the Constitution, of joining the EU and NATO.
In particular, the government promulgated a law in the spring “on foreign influence” directly inspired by Russian legislation which the Kremlin uses to crush civil society and the opposition.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze votes during the legislative elections in Tbilisi, October 26, 2024 / Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE / AFP
In the process, Brussels froze the process of joining the European Union as a protest and the United States took sanctions against Georgian officials for their “brutal repression” during the protests that followed.
“Unless Georgia changes course”the European Commission “will not be able to recommend the opening of negotiations” with a view to entering the EU, warned the Commission in its annual report on enlargement published on Wednesday.
Faced with numerous criticisms, the Georgian Prime Minister nevertheless promised on Monday that the “main priority” of Tbilisi remained “European integration”.
During the campaign, his party presented itself as the only one capable of preventing Georgia from the same fate as Ukraine, against a backdrop of Russian-Western rivalries.
