Georgia to partially recount votes in disputed poll

 

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili votes in the country's parliamentary elections at a polling station in Tbilisi on October 26, 2024. [AFP]

Georgia's central election commission said it will partially recount ballots Tuesday after opposition parties denounced the weekend parliamentary election as "stolen".

US President Joe Biden added his voice to Western critics of the election, saying he was "deeply alarmed" by democratic "backsliding" in the Caucasus country and that the vote was marred by "voter intimidation and coercion".

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had defied Western concerns over the vote and travelled to Tbilisi in a show of support for the ruling conservative Georgian Dream party.

Pro-Western opposition parties have refused to recognise the results of Saturday's vote, which they claim was falsified in favour of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Tens of thousands joined a protest rally in Tbilisi on Monday and a fresh anti-government demonstration was announced for Tuesday evening.

Georgia's electoral commission said in a statement that "district election commissions will conduct recounts of ballots from five polling stations randomly selected in each election district," making up about 14 per cent of the vote.

According to near-complete results announced by the commission, the ruling Georgian Dream party won 53.9 per cent, compared with 37.7 per cent for a union of four opposition alliances.

President Salome Zurabishvili has declared the election results "illegitimate", alleging election interference by a "Russian special operation", a claim that was rejected by the Kremlin.

Opposition parties have said they would not enter the new "illegitimate" parliament and demanded "fresh" elections run by an "international election administration".

The United States and European Union have condemned electoral "irregularities".

A group of Georgia's leading election monitors on Monday said that they had uncovered evidence of complex, large-scale fraud and demanded the annulment of at least 15 per cent of votes cast.

Data analyst Levan Kvirkvelia said on X that "(voting) data provides solid evidence supporting the argument of ballot stuffing/miscounting."

"This manipulation occurred exclusively in rural areas, and we can say that the ruling party committed electoral fraud," he added.

'Conservative values' 

But Hungary's nationalist leader Orban said Tuesday at a press conference in Tbilisi alongside his Georgian counterpart Irakli Kobakhidze that Georgia's election had been "free and democratic".

Orban, who has maintained friendly ties to Russia, congratulated the Georgian people on "having voted for peace" and "not letting your country become a second Ukraine".

Georgian Dream's campaign centred on a conspiracy theory about a "global war party" that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

In a country scarred by Russia's 2008 invasion, the party warned of an imminent threat of war that only the Georgian Dream could prevent.

Orban claimed that "if the liberals had won" the election, Brussels would have called Saturday's vote "democratic".

He earlier rushed to congratulate Georgian Dream on an "overwhelming victory" on Saturday before preliminary results had been published.

A protester was heard shouting at Orban as he reviewed troops Tuesday at a welcoming ceremony in Tbilisi.

"Mr Prime Minister, can you be proud of yourself that you came here to legitimise stolen elections?" the protester shouted in Hungarian.

Orban faced jeers and shouts of "Go home!" from protesters in Tbilisi on Monday evening, videos posted on social media showed.

Kobakhidze said the two leaders share "conservative, Christian values" and thanked Orban for supporting EU candidate Tbilisi's bid for membership in the bloc, which he claimed was his government's "top priority".

Georgia was rocked in May by huge demonstrations against a law on "foreign influence", which critics said mirrored Russian legislation used to silence Kremlin critics.

The US imposed sanctions on Georgian officials following the protests, while Brussels put Tbilisi's accession process on halt.

The ruling Georgian Dream party has for months been accused by the opposition of steering Tbilisi away from its goal of joining the EU and back into Russia's orbit.