Georgia's President refuses to appear in election fraud probe

Georgia’s President has refused to appear at the country’s Prosecutor’s Office after being summoned as a part of a probe into alleged vote-rigging in last weekend’s election.

“I just want to say that it’s not up to the President to provide the proof that exists in society,” Salome Zourabichvili said at a press conference in Tbilisi after showing footage of alleged ballot violations.

“The non-governmental organisation, the observers and regular citizens have been providing huge amounts of proof that are every day coming out and are showing more and more how large, how systemic, how massive the rigging of the elections [was],” she added.

The investigation was opened after Georgia’s opposition denounced the parliamentary elections as illegitimate.

It was requested by the Central Election Commission, and Zourabichvili was summoned for questioning Thursday about the allegations; others “who may possess information related to the alleged criminal act” also would be questioned, the Prosecutor’s Office said.

Election officials also have announced a partial recount of ballots cast at a number of polling stations, aimed at addressing some of the accusations. It wasn’t immediately clear when that will be completed, with a CEC statement saying ballots from five polling stations randomly selected in each election district will be recounted.

Georgian Dream, which has deepened the country’s ties with Russia, declared victory in Saturday’s election after authorities said it won about 54% of the vote with almost all ballots counted.

The balloting was seen by many Georgians as a choice between continuing to support the ruling party or seeking closer integration with the European Union.

However, the opposition has raised objections that the Prosecutor’s Office would not conduct an independent investigation because its head was appointed by parliament, which is dominated by the Georgian Dream ruling party.

Salome Samadashvili of the opposition Strong Georgia coalition, questioned whether the Prosecutor’s office was independent of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the party’s founder’s, influence.

“If somebody thinks that they can fool the Georgian people or our international partners into believing that Bidzina will investigate his own election fraud, they are mistaken. Nobody can be fooled,” Samadashvili said.

“That is why we are saying that the investigation should be conducted by an international mission with the adequate mandate and qualifications. Until this is done, this election cannot and will not have legitimacy or trust,” she added.

Zourabichvili, who has a mostly ceremonial role as president, suggested that “Russian elections” were held in the country, and said “technology was used to whitewash counterfeiting. Such a thing has never happened before.”

‘Russia has won in Georgia’

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has said ‘Russia has won in Georgia’, warning it will do the same in Moldova unless the West ends its rhetoric on crossing Moscow’s ‘red lines’.

“We have to recognise in Georgia for today Russia won. First, they took part of Georgia, then they changed policy, the government. And now [Georgia] has a pro-Russian government,” Zelenskyy said in a video released on Wednesday.

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Moldova, which neighbours Ukraine, is set to hold a presidential election runoff on Sunday after the country’s pro-European incumbent failed to secure a majority.

Both the election in Georgia and in the vote in Moldova were widely seen as a referendum on whether the countries would continue their path towards European Union membership or succumb to Russian influence.