U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement expressing his “alarm” at the democratic backsliding in Georgia saying that “Georgia’s October 26 parliamentary elections were marred by numerous recorded misuses of administrative resources as well as voter intimidation and coercion.” The statement also stresses that “Georgian citizens have a right to peacefully express their views regarding the conduct of these elections, which independent international and domestic observers have not said were free and fair.”
On October 28, the Swedish Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Benjamin Dousa, told the media that the Swedish government had decided to suspend cooperation between the two countries. Sweden is one of Georgia’s biggest donors, and its aid has amounted to almost USD 19 million a year.
The U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. joins international and local observers in calling for a full investigation into reports of election-related violations in Georgia’s October 26 elections. He opened the briefing with a statement on Georgia, saying that “the Georgian people went to the polls on Saturday in an election environment shaped by the ruling party’s policies including misuse of public resources, vote buying, and voter intimidation.”
“The puppet president of Georgia refused to accept the election and went against the Constitution by calling for a coup. The standard practice in such cases is removal from office and arrest,” the Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev posted on X. Other Russian officials, including Maria Zakharova and Dmitry Peskov, accuse the West of “neocolonialism” and interfering in Georgia’s internal affairs.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell issued a statement on the parliamentary elections in Georgia, asking for a transparent investigation into the identified violations. Borrell noted that the post-election situation in Georgia is “very worrying,” stressing that international observers reported violations during the campaign and on election day and have not declared the elections “free and fair.” More on the international reactions to the election results can be found here.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Tbilisi on October 28-29. PM Orbán congratulated his Georgian counterpart on the victory of the Georgian Dream in the parliamentary elections and said that there would be some debates about it in the EU, but the Georgians should not take it seriously. The people reacted to the motorcade of PM Orbán with loud whistling, booing, and negative comments. To this day, he remains the only leader of an EU country to congratulate the Georgian Dream government on its election victory.
Local media, citing government administration, reported that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on the ruling party’s victory in parliamentary elections, expressing hope that the results of the elections will bring success to the Georgian people and the region. “It is good that the elections, which expressed the will of the Georgian people, took place in a peaceful and safe environment,” President Erdoğan said in his congratulatory letter.
The authoritative democracy watchdog Europe Elects published its findings regarding the alleged rigging of the October 26 elections in Georgia, revealing that “on top of the electoral integrity violations reported by observers, the widespread tampering in favor of the government is visible also in the detailed official results counts.” The organization says that “the analysis of the election data shows that the biggest telltale sign of tampering with the results is implausible deviations from normal distribution when it comes to voting shares of a relevant party.”
The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) Steering Committee issued a statement expressing concern over the conduct of the October 26 parliamentary elections in Georgia and calling for the non-recognition of the official results. “We call for the non-recognition of these election results by the international community until an impartial investigation is conducted,” said Lasha Tugushi, EaP CSF Steering Committee Co-chair.
The pro-Russian and homophobic Alt-Info channel stopped broadcasting after its members showed poor results in the elections. The two faces of the channel are sanctioned by the US Treasury Department. “This loss is very heavy for us, a very serious blow for us because we did not expect this result and we did everything to avoid this result,” said Shota Martinenko, one of the presenters of the channel. Martinenko said that the channel was working in the hope of the election results, adding that “Some people were working without pay.”
