US President Joe Biden has called on the Georgian government to respond to international concern at the scale of violations in Saturday’s election and repeal recent Russian-style laws.
The Georgian Dream government in the South Caucasus state, which borders Russia, claimed a fourth term in power after election authorities said it had won almost 54% of the vote.
“I have been deeply alarmed by the country’s recent democratic backsliding,” Biden said, echoing concerns by the European Union, which has frozen Georgia’s bid for membership and described latest developments as “deeply worrying”.
Georgia’s pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, has refused to recognise the result.
She has spoken of a “Russian special operation” to influence the outcome and backed four opposition groups, who say the vote was “stolen” by an increasingly authoritarian party moving Georgia back into Russia’s orbit under billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.
The US and EU have both called for an investigation into a catalogue of examples of intimidation, violence and ballot-stuffing, as well as alleged flagrant violation of the new electronic voting process.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Georgians had “a right to see that electoral irregularities are investigated swiftly, transparently and independently”.
However, the US president’s statement will sting the Georgian Dream leadership most, because it is most likely to cut through to Georgia’s 3.7 million population.
Georgian Dream’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has sought to shrug off criticism of the poll. He told the BBC there were incidents in only a couple of polling stations, while in all the others “the environment was completely peaceful”.
On Tuesday, he shared a platform with Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who travelled to Tbilisi to praise the vote as “free and democratic”.
Orban made no mention of the numerous allegations of vote violations and his visit annoyed many of the EU’s 27 member states.
Thirteen foreign ministers said he did not speak on behalf of the EU, while Brussels contradicted Orban, making it clear observers had not declared the elections to be free and fair. It said developments in Georgia were “very worrying”.
In recent months, Georgian Dream has passed a Russian-style “foreign agents” law targeting media and non-government groups that receive foreign funding, as well as a law curbing LGBT rights.
Source:Fiilafmonline/BBC
