Georgia’s pro-Western opposition refuses to accept election defeat

Leaders of several opposition parties in Georgia have said they will not recognize the results of this weekend’s national parliamentary vote. According to the official results, the ruling Georgian Dream party received almost 54% of the vote, while various opposition forces attracted between 11% and 3%.

Georgian Dream party chairman Mamuka Mdinaradze has claimed the party is likely to win at least 90 of the national chamber’s 150 seats, up from the 74 it won in the last election. The party will then be able to form the next government since a simple 76-strong majority is needed in Georgia to pick the next prime minister and cabinet.

Tina Bokuchava, who heads the pro-Western Unity-National Movement (UNM) party, has accused the nation’s central election committee of doing Georgian Dream’s bidding and of “stealing the European future” of Georgia.

“We do not accept the stolen election results and are not going to recognize [them],” she stated at a news briefing following the vote. Bokuchava claimed that victory in fact “belonged” to the opposition, which supposedly had received a “mandate of trust” from the people.

According to official results, the UNM received just over 10% of the votes. Bokuchava still maintained that her party would “fight like never before for the return of our European future and will not come to terms with the stolen election results.” She later announced that her party will not join the new parliament.

Bokuchava also said on Sunday that she’d already met with Georgia’s Western-leaning president Salome Zourabichvili, describing the meeting as “very important.” According to media in Georgia, the president has met with representatives of several opposition groups on Sunday, including the UNM and ‘Strong Georgia.’ 

The leader of the ‘Coalition for Changes’ party has also declared that his group will not recognize the election results. Nika Gvaramia, who also briefly served as the nation’s justice minister in 2008, accused the Georgian Dream of “usurping power” and of staging what he called a “constitutional coup.”

Gvaramia has also vowed that his political rivals “will be held accountable for this under Georgian law,” adding that Georgian Dream would have to “acknowledge the opposition victory” before that. His party was a member of a coalition that received 11% of the votes. ‘Coalition for Changes’ also announced that they do not intend to participate in parliamentary activities.

Salome Zourabichvili has claimed that the vote was won by what she called “European Georgia,” and despite alleged “attempts to rig elections.”

Georgian Dream’s Mdinaradze responded to the president’s statements by calling her an “agent” of the opposition radicals. “Georgia no longer has a president. Georgia has an agent, a leader of the radical opposition… the main coordinator,” the politician stated on Sunday.

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