In a dramatic show of unity, Georgia\u2019s often fractured opposition gathered at the presidential palace in Tbilisi, standing shoulder to shoulder behind the president, Salome Zourabichvili, as she defiantly announced, \u201cI do not recognize these elections. Recognizing them would be tantamount to legitimizing Russia\u2019s takeover of Georgia \u2026 We cannot surrender our European future for the sake of future generations.\u201d <\/p>\n
The government, controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party, she said, is \u201cillegitimate\u201d and the election it carried out October 26 was a \u201ccomplete falsification.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her voice rising, she said: \u201cWe were not just witnesses but also victims of what can only be described as a Russian special operation \u2013 a new form of hybrid warfare waged against our people and our country.\u201d <\/p>\n
She urged Georgians to gather in protest Monday evening on the capital\u2019s main street, Rustaveli Avenue, \u201cto peacefully defend every vote and, most importantly, our future.\u201d <\/p>\n
The statement was a bold challenge to the Georgian Dream\u2019s founder and now honorary chairman, the reclusive billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who claimed victory in the parliamentary election even before all the votes were counted. <\/p>\n
Ivanishvili had vowed to ban the opposition if his party won the election, and his opponents are taking him at his word. <\/p>\n
On Saturday, as Georgians cast their ballots, thousands of Georgian and international election observers fanned out to voting precincts across the country, from urban centers to poor, remote villages in the Caucasus mountains, trying to evaluate whether the vote was free and fair. <\/p>\n
Throughout election day, video of violations, some of them egregious, like a man boldly jamming ballots into a ballot box, spread quickly. <\/p>\n
The day after, at a briefing by the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, the conclusions were troubling: \u201csystematic\u201d intimidation; harassment of voters inside and outside polling stations; \u201cpervasive intimidation and pressure on public sector employees and social-service benefits recipients.\u201d <\/p>\n
Observations by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) were even more stark: \u201cOn election day, ISFED documented serious violations, such as ballot stuffing of ballot papers, multiple voting, unprecedented levels of voter bribery, expulsion of observers from polling stations, as well as instances of mobilizing voters outside polling stations, collecting their personal data, and controlling their voting intentions.\u201d <\/p>\n
In Tbilisi, former US Representative John Shimkus said the intimidation and harassment of voters created an \u201catmosphere of fear.\u201d <\/p>\n
Swedish Member of Parliament Margareta Cederfelt added: \u201cThe government\u2019s continued harassment and intimidation of voters and civil society not only during the election period, but well before it, has threatened Georgia\u2019s democratic underpinnings.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Georgian opposition owes its new unity to the efforts of President Zourabichvili, a person some of them used to criticize, but now respect. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is on the right side of history,\u201d said opposition politician Nika Gvaramia. \u201cShe is the only one who can unite people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking at his Ahali party headquarters, part of the \u201cCoalition 4 Change\u201d just off Tbilisi\u2019s main street, Gvaramia, along with Elene Khoshtaria, founder of the \u201cDroa\u201d party, told reporters: \u201cRussia hacked the (Georgian) election.\u201d <\/p>\n
Moscow, they claimed, is carrying out a \u201chybrid war\u201d with new and different means of technical meddling, and it\u2019s right out of \u201cPutin\u2019s playbook.\u201d <\/p>\n
The West, they said, isn\u2019t even playing catch up. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Georgian government announced that its first high-level visitor after the election will be Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who plans to spend October 28 and 29 in a high-profile show of support to the Georgian Dream government. <\/p>\n
The illiberal leader has found common cause with Georgia\u2019s ruling party and was the first international leader to congratulate them after the election \u2013 even before the votes were officially tallied. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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