Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream has claimed victory in parliamentary elections held on October 31, but the opposition rejected the results and plans to protest in central Tbilisi.
With nearly 59 percent of the vote counted early on November 1, data from the Central Election Commission showed Georgian Dream winning 49.32 percent and the main opposition party United National Movement (ENM) 25.94 percent.
Several parties also made it over the 1 percent threshold, according to preliminary results. Turnout was 56 percent.
The election was the first under a reformed electoral system passed in June giving more weight to proportional representation. Of 150 seats in parliament, 120 seats are determined based on party lists and 30 seats through single-mandate districts where a candidate must win 50 percent to avoid a runoff.
According to partial results, Georgian Dream candidates are also on pace to have more than 50 percent of the vote in many of the 30 single-mandate districts, meaning the ruling party can avoid a runoff in those districts and boosts its presence in parliament.
Opposition parties rejected the results and called on citizens to rally on Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi in the afternoon of November 1 to protest what they called an illegitimate outcome.
“It was not an election, it was a war,” Nika Melia, one of the ENM leaders, told reporters after consulting with other opposition leaders.
According to another opposition leader, Shalva Natelashvili, the election results are illegitimate and “the government has been usurped.”
The ruling party declared victory after polls closed across the South Caucasus country and four exit polls put it in first place.
Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who formed the Georgian Dream coalition in 2012, personally congratulated the leaders of the party and supporters.
It is still not clear how the results will translate into seat distribution in parliament or whether Georgian Dream would secure enough votes to form a single-party government for a third consecutive time.
Tamar Zhvania, the chairperson of the Central Election Commission, said the election was conducted in a calm environment with some exceptions and voters exercised their constitutional right.
International election observers are expected to give a press conference later on November 1.
The elections are considered a test of electoral reforms intended to broaden the range of representation in the legislature and end the consolidation of power by a single political grouping.
The election campaign was centered on Georgian Dream’s handling of a struggling economy, the coronavirus outbreak, and foreign relations.
Many Georgians accuse the government of mishandling the economy, selective justice, weak foreign policy, and falling short of democratic standards, including brutal dispersal of protests.
Georgian Dream defeated the ENM in the 2012 parliamentary elections and has been the ruling party ever since.
However, the party lost its constitutional majority in 2019 after some lawmakers defected amid protests alleging it had failed to follow through on electoral promises, including electoral reforms.
If the preliminary results hold, Georgian Dream appears to have overcome a rule whereby securing anything less than 40 percent of the vote requires a coalition to form the government.
Wedged between the Caspian and Black Seas, Georgia’s strategic location makes it a transit point for energy and trade between Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as a key player in Europe’s energy security.
Georgian Dream has been in fractious rivalry with ENM, which nominated former President Mikheil Saakashvili to be its candidate for prime minister.
Saakashvili rode the wave of the pro-Western Rose Revolution to the presidency in 2004 and served two terms in office marked by antigovernment demonstrations as well as a failed war against Russia over the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008.
Following Georgian Dream’s parliamentary victory in 2012 and the subsequent arrest of some former high-ranking members of his cabinet on charges of abuse of power, Saakashvili left the country in 2013.
A Georgian court in January 2018 convicted the former president of hiding evidence in the killing of a banker and was sentenced to three years in prison. In June of that year he was also convicted of abuse of power and sentenced in absentia to six years in prison.
The 52-year-old is in self-exile in Ukraine, where he served during his time there as governor of Odesa Oblast from 2015-2016.
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Radio Free | Radio Free (2020-11-01T03:33:15+00:00) Georgian Dream Leads In Parliamentary Vote Rejected By Opposition. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/11/01/georgian-dream-leads-in-parliamentary-vote-rejected-by-opposition/
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