TBILISI: Georgia’s newly elected President Salome Zurabishvili on Thursday hailed her victory as a step forward for women and a move closer to Europe for the ex-Soviet republic.
With all votes counted, the country’s election commission said the French-born ex-diplomat, backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, had taken 59.52 per cent of the second-round vote.
Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), took 40.48 per cent.
The opposition denounced the election as a fraud. But while raising some serious concerns, foreign observers said the vote was “competitive” and well-run.
“It is now important to show that this country has chosen Europe,” Zurabishvili said told journalists after her win. “For that purpose, Georgians have elected a European woman president.”
“It feels great,” she said, pointing out that she was one of a small number of women presidents in the world.
The election was seen as a test of Georgia’s democratic credentials as it seeks European Union and Nato membership.
It was also a trial run for more important parliamentary elections in 2020, when Georgian Dream is set to face off against a range of opposition parties.
The opposition candidate rejected the results and called for protests.
“We do not recognise the election results, we demand to hold snap parliamentary polls,” Vashadze said in televised remarks after Zurabishvili was declared the winner.
He called for “a mass peaceful demonstration” in the capital Tbilisi on Sunday against the result.
Opposition parties have denounced widespread instances of vote-buying, use of administrative resources in favour of Zurabishvili, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing in the election’s second round.
Georgia’s leading rights groups also accused government officials of vote-buying on a “widespread” and “unprecedented” scale and of election fraud, including through the alleged printing of fake ID cards.
Outgoing President Giorgi Margvelashvili, an independent, congratulated Zurabishvili on her election but expressed “concern over the sharp worsening of the second round’s compliance with democratic norms”.
International observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a report after the vote that the “election was competitive and candidates were able to campaign freely, however one side enjoyed an undue advantage,” due to the misuse of administrative resources.
The election was seen as a test of Georgia’s democratic credentials as it seeks European Union and Nato membership. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
