Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili called on Monday for new parliamentary elections in order to resolve the crisis caused by the October elections in the country. In those, according to the official results, the ruling pro-Russian party Georgian Dream won, the AFP agency reminds.
Both the president and the pro-Western opposition call the October elections rigged, while the European Union and the United States called for an investigation into the “irregularities” surrounding the vote. The president also accused Russia of interfering in the election, which Moscow denied. In addition to not recognizing the election result, the opposition also announced that she will not sit in the newly elected parliament.
Zurabishvili said on Monday that the elections were “controlled and manipulated by one party”. She added that this is why Georgia is now experiencing a crisis and needs new elections to have a legitimate parliament and a legitimate government.
“Our friends are here to join us and look for ways to help Georgia get out of this crisis,” Zurabishvili said, according to AFP, referring to a group of lawmakers from eight European countries, including France and Germany, who visited on Monday. Georgia: The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, refused to meet with this delegation.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on Friday in connection with the Georgian elections that “there are serious suspicions of fraud that require a serious investigation”. At the same time, Brussels warned before the elections in Tbilisi that this vote could decide on Georgia’s chances of joining the Union.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tbilisi in recent days to protest against the allegedly manipulated election results. A group of Georgian election observers previously reported that it had uncovered evidence of a complex system of large-scale fraud in connection with the election that swayed the results in favor of the Georgian Dream.
The ruling and increasingly conservative party, on the other hand, insists that the vote was free and fair. She also says that EU membership remains her “highest priority”. But critics accuse her of derailing Georgia from the European direction and bringing it closer to Moscow.
