Georgia's president calls for Western support against election results
The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, appealed to the West for support of the opposition's protests against the official results of Saturday's parliamentary elections.
During a press conference on Sunday, the President of Georgia stated that Georgian voters had fallen victim to a "Russian special operation" and that the elections were a new form of hybrid warfare targeted against the Georgian nation.
According to data from the Central Election Commission, the ruling party Georgian Dream, in power since 2012, won the elections and stands accused of deviating from democratic standards. The President and the opposition do not recognise the official results, and observers highlight abuses during the voting.
"It was a total falsification and confiscation of our votes. All the methods we have seen in different countries were used. In addition, today's technologies for whitewashing fraud were used. This has never happened before. We have witnessed and become victims of a Russian special operation, a hybrid war that was waged against our people, against our country," she added.
The President accused the ruling Georgian Dream of acting hand in hand with Russia and potentially receiving assistance from Russian security services. "We’ve seen that Russian propaganda was directly used," she emphasised in an interview with the AP agency.
Zurabishvili emphasized that she expects strong support from the United States and the European Union for the opposition protests against the election results. "We need to have the firm support of our European partners, of our American partners," she said.
A demonstration convened by the president is set to begin on Monday in the centre of Tbilisi. The demonstration will express opposition to the official parliamentary election results.
