Georgia prosecutors investigating allegations of election fraud

State prosecutors accidental probe comes astatine petition of electoral committee arsenic they summon President Salome Zurabishvili who alleges Russian interference.

State prosecutors successful Georgia accidental they person launched an probe into absorption allegations of “falsification” successful caller parliamentary elections won by the governing Georgian Dream party.

The prosecutor’s bureau said successful a connection connected Wednesday that it has besides summoned President Salome Zourabichvili, who has repeatedly said the ballot number was falsified.

The European Union criticised “irregularities” successful Saturday’s ballot and called for an investigation. United States President Joe Biden said helium was “deeply alarmed” by antiauthoritarian “backsliding” successful the country.

The electoral committee announced that Georgian Dream won with 54 percent of the vote, amid protests from the pro-Western absorption that denounced the predetermination arsenic a “constitutional coup”.

The prosecutor’s bureau said the probe was being opened astatine the petition of the electoral commission, which had antecedently said that the predetermination was escaped and fair.

Zourabichvili, who “is believed to person grounds regarding imaginable falsification … has been summoned to the investigative bureau for an interview” connected Thursday, it added.

Zourabichvili declared the predetermination results “illegitimate”, alleging predetermination interference by a “Russian peculiar operation”, a assertion that was rejected by the Kremlin.

Election observers, including from the 57-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation successful Europe (OSCE), person said that the ballot was marred by incidents of elector intimidation, bribery and ballot stuffing that could person affected the result, but stopped abbreviated of calling it rigged.

Georgian media connected Tuesday reported that the electoral committee called the allegations of fraud “baseless criticism”.

The committee said, however, that it would conduct a recount astatine a tiny fig of randomly selected polling stations.

Tens of thousands of radical rallied successful the capital, Tbilisi, connected Monday to protestation against the results, which showed Georgian Dream won 1.12 cardinal votes, 335,000 much than the 4 main absorption parties combined, which received astir 37 percent of votes.

Opposition parties person said they would not participate the caller “illegitimate” parliament and demanded “fresh” elections tally by an “international predetermination administration”.

Tbilisi has been rocked by protests this twelvemonth implicit respective repressive laws passed by Georgian Dream, with opponents accusing the enactment of steering the Caucasus state towards Russia.

The predetermination was formed arsenic a prime betwixt a enactment that has deepened ties with Russia, and an absorption that had hoped to fast-track integration with the EU.

The 27-nation European bloc froze Georgia’s accession process aft Georgian Dream passed a instrumentality this twelvemonth connected “foreign influence” that opponents accidental mirrors Russian legislation.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies