Georgia\u2019s most powerful man claimed victory in an election on Saturday but the opposition called on the ruling party to admit defeat, setting the stage for a confrontation over the future of the South Caucasus country. <\/p>\n
Georgian Dream\u2019s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the opposition, and foreign diplomats had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if\u00a0Georgia\u00a0moves closer to the West or leans back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Early official results with 70% of precincts counted, showed the ruling party had won 53% of the vote, the electoral commission said, but the deeply divided pro-Western opposition parties said that they had collectively clinched a majority. <\/p>\n
Rival exit polls gave sharply different projections for the election. The\u00a0Georgian Dream-supporting Imedi TV channel showed the ruling party winning 56%. Exit polls by the pro-opposition channels showed major gains for the opposition parties. <\/p>\n
Ivanishvili, the ruling party\u2019s reclusive billionaire founder and onetime prime minister, claimed victory and praised the\u00a0Georgian people. But the opposition also celebrated victory and said Ivanishvili should concede. <\/p>\n
Tina Bokuchava, leader of the United National Movement party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, told Reuters that the opposition had won by a good margin of 10%. <\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst that backdrop most people will be taking Bidzina Ivanishvili\u2019s claims of a government majority with a large bucket of salt,\u201d\u00a0Bokuchava said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe the\u00a0Georgian public has voted clearly for a future at the heart of Europe and no amount of posturing will change that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili \u2013 a one-time ally of the ruling party turned fierce critic whose powers are mostly ceremonial \u2013 and independent domestic election monitors had alleged\u00a0Georgian Dream was engaged in widespread vote-buying and other forms of electoral abuse in the lead-up to the vote. <\/p>\n
Georgian Dream did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, came to power in 2012 advocating pro-Western views, alongside a pragmatic policy towards Russia. <\/p>\n
He has since soured on the West, accusing a \u201cGlobal War Party\u201d of seeking to drag\u00a0Georgia\u00a0into war with Russia, even as he insists\u00a0Georgia\u00a0is on course to join the EU. <\/p>\n
Some\u00a0Georgians told Reuters that they wanted change. <\/p>\n
\u201cI voted for freedom and for the European choice,\u201d said voter Irakli Andronikashvili in Tbilisi on Saturday, adding that he wanted a government which was \u201cmore progressive, less corrupt and more common-sense.\u201d <\/p>\n
Georgia\u00a0was once one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union\u2019s collapse. The road leading from Tbilisi\u2019s airport is named after former US President George W. Bush. <\/p>\n
Since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tbilisi\u2019s relations with the West have taken a sharp downward turn. Unlike many Western allies,\u00a0Georgia\u00a0declined to impose sanctions on Moscow, while\u00a0Georgian Dream\u2019s rhetoric has become increasingly pro-Russian. <\/p>\n
Georgian Dream has drawn the ire of its Western allies for what they cast as its increasingly authoritarian bent. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban congratulated\u00a0Georgian Dream for an \u201coverwhelming victory.\u201d <\/p>\n
The pro-opposition Formula exit poll said that the ruling party would be the single largest party but that the four main opposition parties combined would have 83 seats. <\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s four main opposition blocs are deeply divided, and it is unclear if they will be able to work together if they deprive\u00a0Georgian Dream of its majority. <\/p>\n
Sandro Dvalishvili, a 23-year-old\u00a0Georgian Dream activist, told Reuters last week that\u00a0Georgia\u00a0would face \u201cdanger\u201d if his party of choice was defeated at the polls. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf it turns out that we don\u2019t win, for me that\u2019ll be very bad. Because I don\u2019t see another force that will bring peace and stability to our country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s most powerful man claimed victory in an election on Saturday but the opposition called on the ruling party to admit defeat, setting the stage for a confrontation over the future of the South Caucasus country. Georgian Dream\u2019s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the opposition, and foreign diplomats had cast the election as a watershed moment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}