Head of Georgia’s election commission doused in black paint as results finalised

The head of Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) was doused in black paint by a fellow CEC member during a meeting to finalise the contested results of last month’s parliamentary elections, News Georgia wrote on Saturday.

David Kirtadze, from the opposition party Unity — To Save Georgia, threw paint over Giorgi Kalandarishvili saying, “You’re not listening to the Georgian people. You’re not listening to the students protesting. You have stolen Georgia’s future, our future, and are pushing our country towards Russia,” in an exchange that was caught on video.

Kalandarishvili had just announced that the ruling Georgian Dream party, founded by Georgia’s richest man, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, had officially won 53.93% of the vote. A scuffle broke out following the incident, but the session eventually continued and officially approved the election results.

The confirmed results give Georgian Dream 89 seats in the country’s 150-seat parliament, with the remaining 61 seats divided up between four opposition parties, though they have refused to recognise the election results and plan to boycott the new parliament.

Many Georgians considered last month’s election to be a referendum on the country’s eventual membership of the European Union, an objective enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Georgia’s firmly pro-EU opposition has accused Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2016, of dragging the country back into Russia’s orbit by passing a slew of controversial new laws that have alienated Brussels, which has suspended Georgia’s accession process. For its part, Georgian Dream has pledged to bring the country into the EU by 2030, but only on what it called its “own terms” and “with dignity”.