Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili has called for protests in Tbilisi after the ruling Georgian Dream party’s declared victory in a parliamentary election that faced allegations of voting irregularities, Reuters reports.
The Georgian Dream party secured nearly 54% of the vote, but observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) reported incidents of vote-buying, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing, though they did not declare the election rigged. Zourabichvili, a former ally turned critic of Georgian Dream, described the election outcome as a “Russian special operation” and urged citizens to protest, emphasizing the need to demonstrate their non-recognition of the election results.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any Russian interference, stating that the election result reflected the will of the Georgian people, while accusing the West of trying to destabilize the situation. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused the opposition of trying to disrupt the constitutional order, while maintaining the government’s commitment to European integration.
International responses have included calls from NATO, the European Union, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a thorough investigation into the alleged electoral irregularities. Concerns over political instability led to significant declines in the shares of Georgian banks on the London stock exchange.
