With 99% of the ballots processed, Georgia’s ruling party Georgia Dream (GD) has over 54.2% of the vote from today’s elections. Its chairman, Mamuka Mdinaradze, said that they will likely gain at least 16 seats (going from 76 to 90) in the 150-seat chamber. The vote was closely watched, as the EU has tried to turn Georgia into the next Ukraine.
GD has taken a neutral position between Russia and the EU, applying to join the EU, but not willing to be turned, like Ukraine, into an anti-Russia battering ram. However, as with Ukraine, foreign-funded NGOs tried to run a “color revolution” against Georgia; but over the summer a transparency law was voted in which exposed the foreign manipulation of the domestic situation. The EU then communicated an assassination threat against Georgia’s prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze if he had acted to enact the transparency law. He went public with the threat against him and in response the EU stated that they would reject Georgia’s application to join unless they voted out his GD government. Hence, yesterday’s vote appears to be a strong message in defense of Georgia’s sovereignty.
The former French ambassador to Georgia, and now leader of the opposition in Georgia, President Salome Zourabichvili, ran a campaign to submit to the EU blackmail. After the vote, she asserted on X that they had won! She stated: “European Georgia is winning with 52% despite attempts to rig elections and without votes from the diaspora.” She praised Georgia for its “democracy, europeanity and maturity.” Her posting was significantly different from the official figures, where her European Georgia attracted around 10% of votes, according to official figures.
Assuming that her claim for European Georgia actually is a claim for the “Unity National Movement” of four opposition parties, that would push her “European Georgia” total up to 39% (with the actual European Georgia grouping one point behind the Coalition for Changes group’s 11%). The other two who achieved the 5% threshold are Strong Georgia and For Georgia, each with 9%.
Otherwise, RT reported that it was not immediately clear what exactly Zourabichvili’s claim was based on. They pointed to an earlier projection published by opposition-leaning Formula TV, which gave 51.9% to the four opposition parties combined, against 40.9% for the ruling party. The pro-government Imedi TV commissioned an exit poll, carried out yesterday, showing Georgia Dream getting about 56%.
