Officials in Georgia said a partial recount of votes from its contested parliamentary election confirmed victory for the governing party, which played down the European Union’s decision to halt the country’s accession process due to concerns over its rule.
The central election commission (CEC) said Georgian Dream won 54 per cent of votes in last Saturday’s ballot, well ahead of opposition parties that refuse to accept a result that they say was skewed by widespread fraud and cases of intimidation and violence.
The CEC said on Thursday that a recount of random ballots amounting to about 14 per cent of the vote “did not lead to a significant change to previously announced official results ... Final tallies only slightly changed at some nine per cent of recounted polling stations”.
Georgia’s prosecutor’s office said two people had been detained for alleged ballot-stuffing and it had opened 47 cases related to “falsifying the election, influencing voters’ will, violating ballot secrecy, obstructing journalistic activities, violence and threats, damage and destruction of property”.
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However, opposition leaders have dismissed the prosecutor’s office and the CEC as tools of Georgian Dream and demand an independent investigation into irregularities and a full rerun of the election under international oversight.
[ Russia regains influence in its ‘near abroad’ as West wraps itself in red linesOpens in new window ]
Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili, who called the elections “blatant fraud” and a “Russian special operation”, rejected a request from prosecutors to answer questions about her allegations on Thursday and told them to get on with their own investigation.
Maka Botchorishvili, the chairwoman of the Georgian parliament’s European integration committee, said Ms Zourabichvili was “acting against Georgia’s national interests and undermining the very state she represents” by issuing “baseless” claims that were “jeopardising” its EU membership bid.
“Any campaign aimed at undermining the elections directly impedes Georgia’s EU path. Those driving such a campaign against Georgia’s European future should clarify the basis of their claims. If there is validity to these accusations, relevant authorities must conduct a thorough investigation,” the senior ruling party member added.
In a scathing update on Georgia’s EU membership bid, Brussels said on Wednesday the country had gone backwards rather advanced towards the start of accession talks and was now following a “course of action which jeopardises its EU path”.
Th EU halted Georgia’s membership process after the government restricted LGBT+ rights, tightened control over civil society groups and intensified anti-western rhetoric; critics at home and abroad said all those moves were redolent of Russia, which Tbilisi refuses to sanction despite its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“As the European Union continues to evaluate Georgia, we also continue to work on the issues provided for in the association agreement. This is what European integration is all about. It has not stopped and will not stop,” said senior Georgian Dream member Shalva Papuashvili.
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