Hungary’s Viktor Orbán flies to Tbilisi after contentious election result

Just days after publicly congratulating Georgia’s ruling party on their triumph in an election that was marred by allegations of vote-rigging and ballot-stuffing, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has flown to Tbilisi, The Guardian reported on Monday, in a move likely to further exasperate his EU colleagues.

On Saturday, Orbán hailed his Georgian counterpart Irakli Kobakhidze and the country’s increasingly authoritarian and pro-Kremlin party of power, Georgian Dream, for what he called their “overwhelming victory” in parliamentary elections just 10 minutes after contested exit polls were released, and with votes still to be counted.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell raised concerns about the fairness of Saturday’s election on Sunday. “We call on the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia … to fulfil their duty to … investigate and adjudicate electoral irregularities and allegations thereof,” The Guardian quoted Borrell as saying.

Ahead of Orbán’s arrival on Monday, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili called on citizens to take to the streets to protest what she called a “Russian special operation” that enabled the victory of the country’s ruling Georgian Dream party.

Charles Michel, the European Council president, announced on Sunday that recent events in Georgia would be added to the agenda of an EU summit due to be held in Budapest in early November, The Guardian continued.

Orbán’s partisan comments on Georgia’s election results are controversial among other EU leaders, as Hungary currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, despite that giving him no role in making EU foreign policy.

While Georgia’s CEC declared Georgian Dream the winner of Saturday’s parliamentary elections on Sunday 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.