The pro-EU opposition says the vote was stolen as the ruling party declared victory

Pro-Western opposition groups in Georgia have refused to accept results that hand victory to the increasingly authoritarian ruling party, after a crucial election that focused on the country’s future path in Europe.

Billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgia Dream Party declared outright victory and the central election commission said it won 54% of the vote based on more than 99% of counties counted.

The initial results differed significantly from opinion polls conducted by Western pollsters.

Tina Bokuchava of the opposition United National Movement said the elections were faked and votes “stolen from the Georgian people”.

Another opposition leader, Nika Gvaramia, said Georgian Dream had staged a “constitutional coup”, while analysts said the increase in the vote share from four years ago was difficult to trust. .

Both Georgian Dream and the four pro-EU opposition groups trying to end its 12 years in power previously declared victory based on competing opinion polls.

Voters turned out in large numbers on Saturday in the South Caucasus state bordering Russia and there were widespread reports of election violations and violence outside polling stations.

An opposition official in a town south of the capital Tbilisi told the BBC that he was initially beaten by a local Georgian Dream councillor, then “10 other men came and I didn’t know What’s happening to me?”

A coalition of 2,000 election observers called My Vote said that based on the scale of vote fraud and violence, they did not believe the preliminary results “reflect the will of the Georgian people.”

The opposition describes the high-stakes vote as a choice between Europe or Russia. Many considered the vote the most important since Georgians backed independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Immediately after the voting ended, two polls by Edison and HarrisX for pro-opposition TV channels gave Georgian Dream 40.9% and 42% of the vote, with the total votes for the four opposition groups combined being 51.9% and 48%. But a poll for major government-backed TV channel Imedi gave Georgian Dream 56%.

Some time later, the Central Election Commission (CEC) released the initial preliminary results.

The commission had said that 90% of the vote would be announced within two hours of the end of voting enabled by a new electronic vote-counting system, but it was not until Sunday morning that preliminary results were almost complete. socks.

The CEC has been criticized for being too close to the government and rushing into electoral reforms before the election without adequate consultation.

“It is the responsibility of government agencies to provide the necessary transparency in the election process,” said Dritan Nesho of HarrisX.

“We analyzed the data from these constituencies and there are big differences from the data we have. In some cases, they have districts in Tbilisi where the Georgian Dream is winning with 45% of the votes, while we know most of the opposition’s votes came from Tbilisi.” .”

Georgian Dream has won an outright majority in parliament, as the four opposition blocs combined could only muster around 37% between them, according to controversial preliminary results.

Under Georgia’s new proportional representation system, whoever wins half the votes will win half of the 150 seats. No other party participating in the election achieved the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made her fortune in Russia in the 1990s, told supporters it was “a rare opportunity in the world for the same party to achieve such success in such difficult circumstances”.

However, opposition leaders and supporters have very different views.

Tina Bokuchava said her party would not accept Georgia’s European future being stolen and she hoped the other main opposition groups would be able to agree on their next steps.

“This is the moment. In the future there may not be such a moment,” opposition voter Levan Benidze, 36, told the BBC. “I know there are a lot of geopolitical risks – from Russia – but this could be a pivotal moment, a turning point.”

Although Georgia was put forward as a candidate to join the European Union last December, that move has since been suspended by the EU because of “democratic regression – in particular the law” affecting Russian-style foreign influence” targeting groups receiving Western funding.

The Soviet Union may have ceased to exist more than three decades ago, but Moscow still considers much of the former Soviet empire its backyard and Russia’s sphere of influence.

They will appreciate Georgian Dream’s campaign promise of a “pragmatic” policy towards Russia, not to mention Brussels’ decision earlier this year to block Georgia’s EU accession process. .

Georgian Dream promised voters it was still on track to join the EU, but it also accused the opposition of helping the West open a new front in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Georgia’s neighbor Russia still holds 20% of the territory after a five-day war in 2008.

Bidzina Ivanishvili’s rhetoric has become increasingly anti-Western, suggesting that a fourth term of the Georgian Dream could pull the country back into Russia’s orbit.

Georgians have a simple choice, the party founder said after voting in Tbilisi: either a government that serves them, or the opposition are “foreign agents who will only carry out orders.” of foreign countries”.

He has repeatedly spoken of a “global war party” promoting the opposition to the war in Ukraine, with Georgian Dream (GD) chosen as the peace party. For many voters, this message worked.

“The most important thing – for me, my family, my grandchildren – is the peace that I wish for all Georgians,” voter Tinatin Gvelesiani, 55, told the BBC at a polling station in Kojori, southwest of the capital. “Only the Georgian dream” will bring peace, she added.

Election observers reported a series of violations across the country, from stuffing ballots inside polling stations to intimidating voters outside.

With less than an hour left until polls close, pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili urged opposition voters not to be afraid.

“Don’t be afraid. All this is just psychological pressure on you,” she said in a live speech on social networks.

The threats turned to violence against Azat Karimov, 35, the local chairman of the largest opposition party, the United National Movement, in Marneuli, south of Tbilisi.

He told the BBC how he got into trouble when his team tried to investigate votes being falsified by Georgia Dream officials. He also alleged that voters were bribed to support the ruling party.

“[A Georgian Dream councillor]came with 10-20 people… before the police arrived I told him to calm down. Immediately, the councilor started beating me.”

Before the vote, a Georgian monitoring group highlighted Russia’s disinformation campaign targeting the election.

The Kremlin has denied meddling in Georgia’s internal affairs and instead accused the West of making “unprecedented efforts” to interfere.

Earlier this year, Sergei Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR, accused the US of planning a “Color Revolution” in Georgia.