Supporters of the Georgian Dream party celebrate at the party’s headquarters after announcing the exit poll results in the parliamentary elections, in Tbilisi, Georgia October 26, 2024.
Irakli Gedenidze Reuters
The most powerful person in Georgia won the parliamentary elections on Saturday, according to the preliminary official results, a blow to Georgians who hope for integration closer to Europe in a bill vote as a choice between the West and Russia.
Billionaire Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the opposition, and foreign diplomats have framed the election as a watershed moment that will decide whether Georgia moves closer to the West or leans back toward Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
Preliminary official results with 70% of precincts counted, representing the majority of votes, show the ruling party has won 53% of the vote, the electoral commission said. The results do not include most ballots cast by Georgians living abroad.
Competing exit polls give a very different projection for the election: The Imedi TV channel that supports Dream Georgia shows the ruling party winning 56%. Exit polls by pro-opposition channels show big gains for opposition parties.
Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of the ruling party and prime minister, claimed victory and praised the Georgian people.
“It is a rare case in the world that the same party achieved success in difficult conditions – this is a good indicator of the talent of the Georgian people,” Ivanishvili told cheering supporters.
Although Georgian Dream lost to the combined opposition in the capital, Tbilisi, it won up to 90% in some rural areas.
The Georgian opposition initially also celebrated the victory and some monitors reported election violations. But a parallel count conducted by one of the opposition parties shows Georgian Dream in a strong position to win the majority.
Party representatives told Reuters they would analyze the results in the coming hours, but stopped short of claiming they were falsified.
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze speaks after the announcement of the results of the polls in the parliamentary elections, at the headquarters of the Georgian Dream party in Tbilisi, Georgia October 26, 2024.
Irakli Gedenidze Reuters
Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, came to power in 2012 espousing pro-Western views, along with a pragmatic policy towards Russia.
He has since angered the West, accusing the “Global War Party” of seeking to drag Georgia into war with Russia, even as he insists Georgia will join the EU.
If a victory for Ivanishvili’s party is confirmed, it will be a blow to the European Union’s hopes of bringing more former Soviet republics into orbit. Moldova on October 20 voted by a very slim majority to support EU accession.
Russia has repeatedly signaled that it wants Georgian Dream to win, while accusing Western countries of undue interference in Georgian politics.
“The Georgians won. Well done!” said Margarita Simonyan, editor of the Russian state media outlet RT, which the United States has accused of trying to influence the presidential election itself. There was no immediate comment from the EU.
Voting is important
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili – a one-time ally of the ruling party turned fierce critic whose power is largely ceremonial – and an independent domestic election monitor say Georgian Dream engaged in widespread vote buying and other forms of electoral abuse while in power. to vote.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), an independent Georgian election monitoring group founded in 1995, said it had documented numerous violations and incidents of violence outside many polling stations.
Nika Melia and Nika Gvaramia, leaders of the Coalition for Change, and Nana Malashkhia, who heads the coalition’s parliamentary list, react after the announcement of the results of the exit polls in the parliamentary elections, in Tbilisi, Georgia October 26, 2024.
Zurab Javakhadze Reuters
A video circulated on social media showing men stuffing dozens of ballots into ballot boxes in Marneuli, a town of about 25,000 south of Tbilisi. The vote was later declared invalid, a spokesman for the Central Election Commission said, according to the Interpress news agency.
Giorgi Kalandarishvili, the chairman of the election commission, said that the voting was peaceful and free, and said that the election had been conducted according to international standards.
Change it
Some opposition-minded Georgians told Reuters they were disappointed with the results.
Voter Irakli Gotsiridze said: “I am very disappointed that this is the result. I do not want to believe it.”
Georgia used to be one of the most pro-Western countries to emerge from the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The road from Tbilisi airport is named after former US President George W. Bush.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tbilisi’s relations with the West have deteriorated. Unlike many of its Western allies, Georgia has refused to impose sanctions on Moscow, while the rhetoric of the Georgian Dream has become increasingly pro-Russian.
The Georgian Dream has caught the eye of its Western allies on what it is launching because of its authoritarian bent. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban congratulated Georgian Dream on its “remarkable victory”.
Georgian Dream has campaigned hard to keep Georgia out of the war in Ukraine, with campaign billboards contrasting pure Georgian cities with ruined Ukrainian ones.
Sandro Dvalishvili, a 23-year-old Georgian Dream activist, told Reuters last week that Georgia would face “danger” if his party was defeated in the polls.
“If we don’t win, for me that will be very bad. Because I don’t see another force that will bring peace and stability to our country”, he said.
