Georgian president calls for protests after ruling party wins disputed election

TBILISI — 

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili called connected Sunday for radical to instrumentality to the streets to protestation the results of Saturday's disputed parliamentary election, which the electoral committee said the ruling enactment had won.

The Georgian Dream enactment clinched astir 54% of the vote, the committee said, arsenic absorption parties contested the effect and ballot monitors reported important violations.

Zourabichvili, a erstwhile Georgian Dream state turned fierce professional of the ruling party, said she did not admit the results and referred to the ballot arsenic a "Russian peculiar operation." She did not clarify whether she believed Russia had a nonstop relation successful the elections.

"It was a full fraud, a full taking distant of your votes," Zourabichvili told reporters, flanked by Georgian absorption enactment leaders.

Zourabichvili called connected Georgians to protestation successful the halfway of the capital, Tbilisi, connected Monday evening "to denote to the satellite that we bash not admit these elections."

The results, with astir each precincts counted, were a stroke for pro-Western Georgians who had formed the predetermination arsenic a prime betwixt a ruling enactment that has deepened ties with Russia and an absorption aiming to fast-track integration with Europe.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who is simply a subordinate of Georgian Dream, connected Sunday described his party's triumph arsenic "impressive and obvious," and said "any attempts to speech astir predetermination manipulation ... are doomed to failure."

Georgian Dream, present headed for a 4th word successful office, volition instrumentality 89 seats successful parliament, 1 little than it secured successful 2020, the committee said, with 4 pro-Western absorption parties receiving 61 seats successful total.

A bid of violations were reported connected Sunday by 3 abstracted monitoring missions, including the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation successful Europe (OSCE).

The groups said the alleged violations, including ballot-stuffing, bribery, elector intimidation and unit adjacent polling stations, could person affected the effect but stopped abbreviated of calling the result fraudulent.

"We proceed to explicit heavy concerns astir the antiauthoritarian backsliding successful Georgia," said Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White, caput of the European Parliament's delegation to the OSCE mission.

"The behaviour of yesterday's predetermination is unluckily grounds to that effect," helium told reporters.

In a station connected X, European Council President Charles Michel called connected Georgia's electoral committee to afloat analyse the reported violations.

"We reiterate the EU's telephone to the Georgian enactment to show its steadfast committedness to the country's EU path," helium said.

The electoral committee did not respond instantly to requests for comment, but connected Saturday hailed a escaped and just election. Prime Minister Kobakhidze said the observers' conclusions showed determination was nary uncertainty astir the election's legitimacy.

Georgia's 4 pro-Western absorption parties said they did not admit the results, and immoderate members pledged to boycott the caller parliament and called for supporters to instrumentality to the streets.

Coalition for Change absorption enactment person Nika Gvaramia called the ballot "a law coup" and a "usurpation of power." His enactment cited 2 exit polls that showed the absorption winning a bulk of seats successful parliament.

The person of the United National Movement absorption party, Tina Bokuchava, said the predetermination had been "stolen," calling for protests.

EU enlargement challenge

Georgian Dream's reclusive billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who campaigned heavy connected keeping Georgia retired of the warfare successful Ukraine, hailed the party's triumph connected Saturday nighttime aft its strongest show since 2012.

Electoral committee information showed it winning by immense margins of up to 90% successful immoderate agrarian areas, though it underperformed successful bigger cities.

Georgian Dream says it wants Georgia to articulation the European Union, though Brussels says the Caucasus country's rank exertion is frozen implicit what it says are the party's authoritarian tendencies.

It has pushed done a instrumentality connected "foreign agents" and different curbing LGBT rights, some of which drew beardown disapproval from Western countries but were praised by immoderate Russian officials.

For years, Georgia was 1 of the astir pro-Western countries to look from the Soviet Union, with polls showing galore Georgians disliking Russia for its enactment of 2 breakaway regions of their country.

Russia and Georgia fought a little warfare implicit the rebel state of South Ossetia successful 2008. Georgia was defeated.

But the predetermination effect poses a situation to the EU's ambition to bring successful much ex-Soviet states.

Last week, Moldova voted narrowly to o.k. its EU accession successful a ballot that Moldovan officials said was marred by Russian interference.

An EU authoritative told Reuters determination was "a consciousness of disappointment" implicit the Georgian opposition's performance, but Brussels was chiefly acrophobic astir a contested effect starring to a standoff.

The German, Estonian, Latvian overseas ministries said they were acrophobic by the reports of electoral irregularities.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was speedy to congratulate Georgian Dream, planned to sojourn the state connected Monday, the Georgian authorities said.