The Government and the opposition declare themselves winners in Georgia at the close of the polls

Both the ruling party in Georgia for twelve years, Georgian Dream (SG), and the pro-Western opposition parties have declared themselves winners this Saturday of the elections in the Caucasian country at the close of the polls, when three different polls have been published at the exit poll with totally contradictory results. Gorbi, linked to the ruling party, maintains that SG has obtained 56% of the votes for 37% of the main opposition parties, which would give it an absolute majority in Parliament. While Mtvari and Edison, linked to opposition media, give SG between 41% and 42% of the votes, compared to between 48% and 52% that they give to the four opposition coalitions, which before the elections They had agreed on a joint program in the event of victory aimed at returning Georgia to its European path.

These were elections held in the midst of strong political polarization, which the opposition had presented as a plebiscite between Europe and Russia, given the anti-Western discourse of the Executive in recent years and its increasingly authoritarian drift, which has led to the Union European Union to freeze Georgia’s accession process just a few months after granting it candidate country status last December. The ruling party, for its part, had defined these elections as a referendum between peace and war, accusing the opposition of wanting to drag the Caucasian country into an armed confrontation with Russia.

The leaders of Georgian Dream, including its founder, the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, and the prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, have appeared after the closing of the polls on a stage prepared next to the party headquarters, where they have proclaimed themselves winners with a joyful and laughter “I assure voters that although there are wealthier nations with older democracies, our society is as capable as them. It is essential that we understand who to trust and where to take the country. I assure you that, in the next four years, we will achieve many things,” said Ivanishvili, the richest man in the country.

SG supporters have taken to the streets and even set off fireworks despite the fact that the first official provisional results are not expected before they are transmitted by the Electoral Commission at 10:00 p.m. local time (two hours less in mainland Spain). Who has not waited for the official results either has been the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, who on the social network X has congratulated SG for its “overwhelming victory.” The Hungarian leader has become an example to follow for the Georgian party, which, in recent years, has made a turn from center-left to ultra-conservatism.

However, the leaders of the different opposition parties have assured that victory is theirs. “European Georgia is winning with 52% of the votes despite attempts to rig the elections and when the votes of the diaspora have not yet been counted,” said the country’s president, Salomé Zurabishvili, who has established herself as coordinator of the divided opposition.

For the first time, Georgia launched a fully proportional seat distribution system and an electronic voting management system. The company selected for this was Smartmatic, a multinational of Venezuelan origin that has managed electoral processes in various countries around the world – in some, such as the Philippines, with some controversy – and that left Venezuela in 2017 after denouncing that the Government of Nicolás Maduro had manipulated participation data for the elections to the National Constituent Assembly.

Upon arrival at the polling station (in 90% of the polling stations that had this system), the identity of the voters was verified at a table by inserting their card into a machine in which data and a photograph appeared. Subsequently, they were given a ballot in which they had to indicate their electoral preference, which was deposited in an electronic ballot box, which issued a voting receipt and computed the vote, although the results were not revealed until the end of the day. Subsequently, the voter’s finger was sprayed with a liquid only visible in ultraviolet light to prevent him from voting more than once.

“The procedure is being very clean. The mechanics are complicated but very guaranteeing,” said an international observer consulted by Morning Express after visiting a dozen polling stations in the west of the country. However, he also noted the “strong presence” of members of Georgian Dream and its satellite organizations.

This has been one of the biggest complaints of independent observers and the opposition: the intimidating activities of militants of the ruling party, who in some rural areas have been discovered trying to pay voters for their votes or intimidating them. “The legislation prohibits the presence of any person [fuera de quienes estén votando o estén acreditados como observadores o periodistas] less than 100 meters from the polling stations, and we have seen many unauthorized people trying to mobilize voters and collecting personal information from voters to intimidate them and control their election,” denounced Nino Dolidze, from the International Society for Elections. Free and Democracy (ISFED). This NGO detected irregularities of varying severity in 15% of the polling stations observed. The most serious occurred in the district of Marneuli (southern of the country), where an opposition observer recorded how another, also accredited, placed a large number of votes in the ballot box and a second one pushed them inside. The observer who recorded the images was beaten but managed to broadcast the incident, which led the Ministry of the Interior to initiate an investigation and the Electoral Commission to close this polling station.

In the same district, the local leader of the United National Movement (MNU), the main opposition party, was beaten. The group has reported attacks on its observers in several locations, one of whom had to be hospitalized, and the arrest of four of them.

Attacks, threats and violence

In a provisional report, My Vote observers – which includes around thirty pro-European NGOs – claim to have detected cases of physical aggression, threats and violence in 38 districts, that is, half of those in the country. “The severity and number of electoral violations in [las regiones de] Shida Kartli and Kverno Kartli, including lack of checks, obstruction of observers, misuse of liquid and marking devices and violence against observers and their expulsion from the premises, create a reasonable suspicion of systematic manipulation of the elections in these regions,” says My Vote.

Throughout the day, President Zurabishvili called on the police to intervene firmly in these situations and against those who tried to intimidate voters. The Office of the Ombudsman has also collected reports on various episodes of violence and has called on the security forces to “study and evaluate all these alleged criminal incidents.” “The Ombudsman asks the leaders of all political parties and their followers to refrain from inciting and initiating any type of violence and to facilitate the electoral process being carried out peacefully,” he demanded.