Protests announced

Georgia: ruling party declared the winner

The election administration in Georgia declared the ruling Georgian Dream party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili the winner.(Bild: APA/AFP/Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE)

The electoral commission has declared the ruling party the winner of the parliamentary elections in Georgia. The national-conservative Georgian Dream party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili received 54.09 percent of the vote after almost all ballot papers had been counted, according to the election commission in the capital Tbilisi. 

The pro-European opposition does not recognize this preliminary result and has announced protests. Observers from several NGOs complained of massive violations of electoral law.

After counting the votes from 99.6 percent of the constituencies, some votes from abroad were still missing, said the election administrator. The provisional official final result is therefore still pending.

Pro-European parties locate election fraud
According to a statement, the association of young Georgian lawyers Gyla registered numerous cases in which people voted more than once. Election observers were also obstructed in their work, Gyla announced. The association called for the election commission to provide clarity. Other non-governmental organizations stated that the results did not reflect the will of the voters. The verdict of the election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was eagerly awaited this afternoon.

The pro-European opposition parties speak of electoral fraud and claim victory.(Bild: Associated Press)

The pro-European opposition parties speak of electoral fraud and claim victory. Following the publication of post-election polls, the pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili declared that the opposition had received a total of 52 percent of the vote and could form a pro-Western majority in parliament. In contrast, the electoral commission put the four opposition blocs that managed to get over the five percent hurdle at more than 37 percent.

Opposition divided
However, the opposition in the country on the Black Sea is divided. Some parties had formed electoral alliances. The electoral alliance Unity, which also includes the largest opposition party in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the United National Movement, received around ten percent of the vote according to the electoral commission. The Coalition for Change electoral alliance is therefore the strongest opposition alliance with around 11% of the votes counted. According to the figures, two other blocs each received less than ten percent.

A total of around 3.5 million Georgians at home and abroad were called to vote. According to preliminary figures, voter turnout was around 59% - three percentage points higher than in 2020.

Orbán congratulated
Georgia has a population of 3.7 million and has been a candidate for EU accession since the end of 2023. However, the accession process is on hold due to controversial laws. The traditionally divided opposition fears that under the leadership of Ivanishvili, who became rich in Moscow, Georgia will turn even more towards its large neighbor Russia and finally abandon its EU course.

The ruling party he founded, Georgian Dream, on the other hand, promised peace and stability during the election campaign - and stoked fears of war with Russia should the opposition win. Hungarian head of government Viktor Orbán and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were the first to congratulate Georgian Dream on its victory.