Georgia\u2019s President Salome Zourabichvili has called on citizens to protest the results of a disputed election in an attempt to save the country\u2019s \u201cEuropean future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of Georgians massed outside the parliament on Monday night, calling for the annulment of Saturday\u2019s parliamentary election that the opposition has said was rigged with Russia\u2019s blessing. <\/p>\n
Speaking soon after addressing crowds in the capital, Tbilisi, Zourabichvili said the protesters \u201care coming very peacefully to say, \u2018We have voted, we want our votes to be defended, and we want our European future \u2026 to be defended.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
The Russia-friendly Georgian Dream party, founded by the reclusive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, claimed victory after a day of voting marred by violence and disorder at polling stations across the country. The Central Election Commission (CEC) said it had secured nearly 54% of the vote. <\/p>\n
Asked why she is refusing to recognize the results of the election, Zourabichvili said Georgian Dream had used \u201call the instruments\u201d at its disposal to rig the election and called for an international investigation. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage Georgia\u2019s governing officials to consider the relationship they want with the Euro-Atlantic community, rather than strengthening policies that are praised by authoritarians,\u201d said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. <\/p>\n
Zourabichvili said the election results were difficult to believe because actions taken this year by Georgian Dream have stalled the country\u2019s bid to join the European Union, which polls suggest more than 80% of Georgians support. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery move the Georgian government has made this year is clearly designed \u2026 to make sure that we don\u2019t get the approval of the European leaders,\u201d Zourabichvili said. <\/p>\n
In May, the government passed a \u201cforeign agent\u201d bill, referred to by Georgians as the \u201cRussian law\u201d because of its similarities to legislation passed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Critics say the bill, which requires organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as a \u201cforeign agent,\u201d is designed to shut down watchdogs who call the government to account. <\/p>\n
European leaders criticized the bill and have since frozen Georgia\u2019s accession process, just months after it was offered EU candidate status. <\/p>\n
Zourabichvili disagreed. \u201cThe Europeans have clearly said to the Georgian authorities \u2026 that you cannot pretend that you will join the EU (while) doing what you are doing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
During the election campaign, Ivanishvili \u2013 who made his fortune in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union \u2013 threatened to imprison his political rivals and ban the main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), if Georgian Dream won another term. <\/p>\n
The UNM was founded by former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been jailed since 2021 for abuse of power while in office. <\/p>\n
Asked if she feared similar political retribution, Zourabichvili said she is more worried about the fate of Georgia and what will happen \u201cif things are in the hands of the Georgian Dream.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMy personal future in that is not as important as the future of Georgia,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Georgia\u2019s President Salome Zourabichvili has called on citizens to protest the results of a disputed election in an attempt to save the country\u2019s \u201cEuropean future.\u201d Tens of thousands of Georgians massed outside the parliament on Monday night, calling for the annulment of Saturday\u2019s parliamentary election that the opposition has said was rigged with Russia\u2019s blessing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9221","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\/9221","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=9221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}