Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili called on citizens on Sunday to take to the streets on Monday to protest what she called a “Russian special operation” that enabled the victory of the country’s ruling Georgian Dream party in this weekend’s parliamentary elections.
“I do not recognise these elections. Recognising them would be tantamount to legitimising Russia’s takeover of Georgia,” Zourabichvili announced in a press briefing at Tbilisi’s presidential palace on Sunday, flanked by members of the country’s opposition.
“We were not just witnesses but also victims of what can only be described as a Russian special operation: a new form of hybrid warfare waged against our people and our country,” Zourabichvili said, accusing Georgian Dream of the “complete falsification and theft” of citizens’ votes on “a level of deception we had not encountered before”.
Concluding that Georgia’s opposition would “not accept Russia’s infiltration and this new form of occupation”, she called on supporters to gather outside the country’s parliament at 7pm on Monday to “peacefully defend every vote and, most importantly, our future”.
While Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) declared Kremlin-friendly Georgian Dream the winner of Saturday’s parliamentary elections with 54% of the vote compared to the opposition bloc’s 38%, international observers reported “serious and substantial” procedural violations including ballot-box stuffing, voter intimidation and street violence throughout election day.
Senior White House and EU officials echoed observers’ concerns, with the European Commission calling on Georgian authorities to “fulfil their duty to swiftly, transparently and independently investigate and adjudicate” reported violations.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar appeal to Georgia’s leaders to “respect the rule of law, repeal legislation that undermines fundamental freedoms and address deficiencies in the electoral process together”.
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze hailed Georgian Dream’s “landslide” victory in the elections, asserting that while “irregularities happen everywhere”, Saturday’s vote was broadly “in line with legal principles and the principle of democratic elections”.