'Whoever enters parliament enters Russia,' Georgian president says

Entering the Georgian parliament following the widely disputed results of Tbilisi's October parliamentary elections is the same as entering Russia, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said during an interview with local television on Nov. 22.

"Whoever enters the parliament today will enter Russia," she told the Georgian broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi.

Zourabichvili has accused the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream party of rigging the recent elections and refused to accept the stated results. Along with other opposition party leaders, she has called for public demonstrations and a parliamentary boycott.

"I am sure that the parties will not enter the parliament," she said.

According to Zourabichvili, the 2024 elections were defined by fraud on an unprecedented scale.

"There was, as always, what I call 'normal rigging,' and they make fun of me for it, but the feeling that the elections and the country were stolen from us did not exist," she said.

"The situation is very different. Today, whoever enters the parliament will enter Russia."

Official results of the October election show Georgian Dream securing nearly 54% of the vote, but pro-EU opposition leaders and international observers have highlighted widespread allegations of intimidation, ballot-stuffing, and vote-buying.

The disputed results triggered large-scale protests in Tbilisi. Police began dispersing and arresting demonstrators on Nov. 18, though organizers promised to continue protesting.

Zourabichvili also insists that if Georgian Dream continues to stand by the allegedly fraudulent election results, they will govern alone.

"They are alone," she said.

"They are alone in the parliament, they are alone in the government. The government, the parliament, is one-party, under the vertical of one person, and all the institutions that exist in the country are completely dependent on this one party."

If Georgian Dream stays its course, we can’t consider them a democratic partner, expert says

Georgia stands at a crossroads. The parliamentary elections on Oct. 26 were presented as a choice between a creeping authoritarianism and a drift into the Kremlin’s orbit on one hand, and Georgia’s EU aspirations on the other. A group of pro-European parties hoped to unseat the Georgian Dream, a p…

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek

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