{"id":9153,"date":"2024-10-27T11:38:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T11:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/27\/georgias-pro-western-president-condemns-troubling-incidents-of-violence-at-polling-stations-with-crucial-vote-underway\/"},"modified":"2024-10-27T11:38:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T11:38:05","slug":"georgias-pro-western-president-condemns-troubling-incidents-of-violence-at-polling-stations-with-crucial-vote-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/27\/georgias-pro-western-president-condemns-troubling-incidents-of-violence-at-polling-stations-with-crucial-vote-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia\u2019s pro-Western president condemns \u2018troubling incidents of violence\u2019 at polling stations with crucial vote underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s President Salome Zourabichvili has condemned \u201cdeeply troubling incidents of violence unfolding at various polling stations\u201d as <\/strong>the country votes in a crucial parliamentary election. <\/p>\n

Voting opened early Saturday in the election, seen as a stark choice between Russia and the West. The ruling Georgian Dream party, which has in recent years taken a sharp authoritarian turn and stalled the country\u2019s progress toward potential European Union membership, is bidding for re-election. <\/p>\n

Activist and monitoring groups shared footage that they said showed ballot stuffing at a polling station in Marneuli, southern Georgia. <\/p>\n

Another video showed a man, identified in local media as Azad Karimov \u2013 head of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party\u2019s regional organization \u2013 being assaulted by several men outside the polling station in Marneuli\u2019s 69th precinct. Photos showed Karimov with a bloody nose and cuts to his face. <\/strong> <\/p>\n

In an emergency briefing, the head of the CEC called on Marneuli\u2019s election officials to investigate the incident and take appropriate action. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is troubling information, and the election administration, if confirmed, will not allow such isolated, controlled, or manipulative incidents to undermine the many months of efforts we have put forth into the election day,\u201d Giorgi Kalandarishvili said. <\/p>\n

Zourabichvili, a pro-Western figure whose powers are largely ceremonial, said she had been unable to reach the minister of internal affairs and that \u201cthe official government lines are not working.\u201d Before the election, Zourabichvili urged Georgians to vote against Georgian Dream. <\/p>\n

Responding to the reports from Marneuli, Georgian Dream politician Givi Mikanadze said \u201canyone who hinders the election process\u201d will be punished, but appeared to blame the opposition for the incident. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe opposition has no tangible factor other than to stage provocations, because they know that they will lose the elections,\u201d he said, according to Imedia Media, a Georgian outlet. <\/p>\n

After casting his ballot early Saturday, Georgia\u2019s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told reporters that Georgian Dream will secure 60% of the vote and called on opposition parties to recognize these results. Government critics have questioned how Kobakhidze could know the results in advance. <\/p>\n

The CEC reported voter turnout at 50.6% at 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), which Zourabichvili said was \u201cvery high.\u201d <\/p>\n

At 10 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), the CEC will announce preliminary results based on 90% of votes counted. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s President Salome Zourabichvili has condemned \u201cdeeply troubling incidents of violence unfolding at various polling stations\u201d as the country votes in a crucial parliamentary election. Voting opened early Saturday in the election, seen as a stark choice between Russia and the West. The ruling Georgian Dream party, which has in recent years taken a sharp <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}