Georgia's prosecutor's office launched an investigation into alleged falsification of parliamentary elections and summoned President Salome Zourabishvili for questioning after she accused the ruling party of fraud
The announcement came after several European Union countries criticized voting irregularities and called for an investigation.
US President Joe Biden said he was deeply disturbed by the democratic backsliding in Georgia, writes RSE.
Tbilisi has been plunged into political uncertainty following Saturday's election. The pro-Western opposition said the vote was stolen and refused to recognize the election results, and tens of thousands of people gathered in Tbilisi on Monday to protest the election results.
Zurabishvili, in conflict with the ruling party, declared the election results illegitimate.
"The Georgian Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the alleged falsification of parliamentary elections," prosecutors said in a statement.
Allegedly, Zurabishvili believes that she has evidence related to possible embezzlement, and that is why she was summoned to the investigative agency for an interview on Thursday.
Evidence found
The Georgian monitoring mission "My Voice" announced that it had found evidence of a major scheme by the "Georgian Dream" party to rig the election. The scheme allegedly involved various procedures to "weaken the verification process, allowing for an organized carousel" of multiple votes.
On October 28, the organization called on electoral authorities to cancel the vote in areas that together have more than 300.000 voters and said that number would rise as more evidence was gathered.
The election was held months after Georgian Dream passed a controversial foreign influence law "similar to Russia's law on foreign agents", despite opposition boycotts and mass protests that were occasionally violently quelled.
Last month, a law limiting the rights of the LGBT community was passed.
In a statement issued by the White House, US President Joseph Biden also said that the election was accompanied by a large number of abuses of administrative resources, as well as intimidation and coercion of voters," adding that the citizens of Georgia have the right to peacefully protest the outcome of the election.
Some Western countries, such as Sweden and Canada, have already restricted relations with Tbilisi in response to reported election irregularities.
Both the government and the opposition declared victory
As the "Vremena" portal previously reported, the president of the Georgian Central Election Commission, Giorgi Kalandarshvili, announced the day after the election that the ruling party in that country, Georgian Dream, won 54,08 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections.
According to him, data from 3.100 polling stations out of a total of 3.111 were processed.
On the other hand, according to exit polls published by the pro-opposition channels Formula and Mtavari Arkhi, the opposition pro-Western parties could win 150 seats in parliament.
In addition to these, the Coalition for Change with 10,92 percent of the votes, the United National Movement with 10,12 percent, Strong Georgia with 8,72 percent and For Georgia with 7,76 percent of the votes passed the census.
The leader of the "Georgian Dream" party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, said that the party won the parliamentary majority, gaining about 90 mandates.
At the same time, the opposition declared victory, announcing that it is on its way to winning the majority, while the first results are expected soon.
"European Georgia wins with 52 percent despite attempts to rig the election and without diaspora votes," President Salome Zourabishvili said on the X network.
The Coalition for Change announced on Saturday evening after the Central Election Commission declared the victory of the "Georgian Dream", that it would not recognize the election results and announced the start of street protests.
Source: RSE
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