Tbilisi, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 16th Nov, 2024) Georgians protested on Saturday as the poll commission rubber-stamped the ruling party’s victory in a controversial parliamentary vote marked by claims of Russian meddling and Western calls to investigate fraud allegations.
The Caucasus nation’s pro-Western opposition has denounced the October 26 vote as “fraudulent”, while the European Union and the United States have called for a probe into alleged electoral “irregularities”.
The Georgian Dream party won 53.93 percent of the votes against 37.79 percent garnered by a union of four opposition alliances, the national election commission said.
Critics have blamed the increasingly conservative party for derailing Georgia from its European path and bringing Tbilisi back into Moscow’s orbit.
Saturday’s final results by the electoral commission give Georgian Dream 89 seats in the 150-member parliament, which the opposition deems “illegitimate” and has refused to enter.
Hundreds of opposition supporters staged a rally outside the commission’s headquarters, the latest in a series of protests against the disputed results since the October vote.
The commission’s session was briefly disrupted when an opposition representative splashed black paint on the face of its chair, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, before the results were announced.
President Salome Zurabishvili — at loggerheads with the governing party — has also described the vote as illegitimate and accused Russia of interference. Moscow has denied meddling.
The figurehead leader joined the opposition’s calls for a fresh vote, saying she would not issue a decree to convene the new parliament.
