Amid calls for investigation, Georgia confirms ruling party won disputed election after recount

Georgia officials on Thursday announced that a partial recount confirmed the ruling Georgian Dream party’s victory in a disputed election, despite calls from Washington and Brussels for an investigation.

The pro-Western opposition has claimed that Saturday’s parliamentary vote was “stolen” by the ruling party and has refused to acknowledge the results, creating uncertainty in the Caucasus nation.

Pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili, who has been at odds with the governing party, labeled the election results as “illegitimate,” alleging that a “Russian special operation” aimed to undermine the vote.

The Kremlin has denied any interference.

According to AFP, the central election commission said the recount, covering about 12 per cent of polling stations and representing 14 per cent of the total vote, “didn’t lead to a significant change in the previously announced official results.”

“Final tallies only slightly changed at some nine per cent of recounted polling stations,” AFP quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

Tens of thousands took to the streets on Monday to protest against alleged fraud.

International observers, the European Union and the United States have criticised electoral irregularities and demanded a full investigation.

Georgia’s interior ministry said two people were arrested after alleged ballot stuffing at a provincial polling station, while prosecutors said they had opened 47 criminal cases over alleged electoral violations.

On Wednesday, Georgian prosecutors said they had summoned Zurabishvili for questioning, because she “is believed to possess evidence regarding possible falsification”.

But the figurehead president refused to comply, saying that plenty of evidence of electoral fraud was already available and prosecutors should focus on their investigation and “stop political score-settling with the president”.

Opposition parties have said they will not enter the new “illegitimate” parliament and demanded fresh elections.

‘Serious violations’

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, a Georgian NGO, said in a report released Thursday that the results “regardless of the outcome, cannot be seen as truly reflecting the preferences of Georgian voters”.

The group said it has documented “serious (electoral) violations”, including “intimidation, ballot stuffing, multiple voting, unprecedented levels of voter bribery (and) expulsion of observers from polling stations.”

A group of Georgia’s leading election monitors said earlier that they had uncovered evidence of a complex scheme of large-scale electoral fraud that swayed results in favour of the ruling party.

Brussels had warned prior to the elections that it would be a crucial test for EU-candidate Tbilisi’s fledgling democracy and determine its chances of joining the bloc.

The European Commission said in a report published Wednesday that it could not recommend opening membership talks “unless Georgia reverts the current course of action which jeopardises its EU path.”

Critics of the increasingly conservative Georgian Dream accuse it of derailing efforts to join the EU and of bringing the ex-Soviet country back into the Kremlin’s orbit.

The European Union put Tbilisi’s accession process on halt after Georgian Dream passed a law this year on “foreign influence” that opponents say mirrors repressive Russian legislation, and which has sparked weeks of mass street protests.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze insisted the elections were “entirely fair, free, competitive and clean” and that EU integration was his government’s “top priority”.

Near-final election results showed Georgian Dream won 53.9 per cent of the vote, compared with 37.7 per cent for an opposition coalition.

With inputs from agencies