World News | Georgia's Ruling Party Wins Vote; Opposition Urges Protests
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Georgia's ruling party won the country's highly contested parliamentary election, according to preliminary results announced Sunday that the opposition refused to recognise as valid and used to call for protests, saying they were manipulated.
Tbilsi (Georgia), Nov 1 (AP) Georgia's ruling party won the country's highly contested parliamentary election, according to preliminary results announced Sunday that the opposition refused to recognise as valid and used to call for protests, saying they were manipulated.
Georgia's Central election commission said that with 95 per cent of ballots counted, the Georgian Dream party had received 48.1 per cent of the vote in Saturday's election. The biggest opposition alliance led by the United National Movement party, got 26.9 per cent. Several more opposition parties cleared the 1 per cent threshold to get seats in Parliament.
Irakli Kobahidze, Georgian Dream's executive secretary, said the party won enough seats in the 150-seat parliament to form a government. But the opposition claimed the election was rigged and refused to recognize the results.
As crowds of people started to gather in front of the parliament in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on Sunday afternoon, opposition politicians called for a rerun of the election.
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United National Movement was in talks with other opposition parties on holding a new election, Tina Bokuchava, a member of the party, was quoted by the Georgian 1TV broadcaster as saying.
“If the government refuses to hold new elections, the opposition then has to refuse to participate in the parliamentary life because this will be the Parliament staffed by forged elections rather than by expression of free will of Georgian people,” Bokuchava was quoted as saying.
The Georgian Dream party, created by a tycoon who made his fortune in Russia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has held a strong majority in Parliament for eight years, but its popularity has dwindled steadily amid the country's economic problems.
The Georgian economy has been badly bruised by the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to shrink by 5 per cent this year.
Georgian Dream faced a challenge from an opposition coalition led by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's United National Movement. The coalition fielded Saakashvili as its candidate for prime minister, but he said after the vote that he would not try to get the job.
Georgian Dream nominated the current prime minister, Giorgi Gakharia to stay on in his post.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe deemed the vote “competitive” and said in a statement Sunday that “overall, fundamental freedoms were respected" during the election. However, the organization said “pervasive allegations of pressure on voters and blurring of the line between the ruling party and the state” reduced the public's confidence in the voting process.
Saakashvili, who served as Georgia's president during 2004-2013 and moved abroad when his term ended, long has vowed to drive Georgian Dream from power. He currently holds an official job in Ukraine.
Both Georgian Dream and United National Movement are pro-Western, with goals of establishing better relations and possible eventual membership in NATO and the European Union.
During Saakashvili's rule, Russia and Georgia fought a short war in 2008 that ended with Georgia losing control of two Russia-friendly separatist regions. The issue of the regions' status has remained a key irritant, but ties between Moscow and Tbilisi have improved since Saakashvili's departure.
The opposition has accused Georgian Dream of pursuing pro-Russian policies while claiming to be Western-oriented, charging that Ivanishvili, who holds no government job, has continued calling the shots in the Black Sea nation of 3.7 million. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)