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The President of Georgia asks for Western pressure: To keep the country on the European path
2024-10-29 20:36:51 / BOTA
The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, has called on the West to put pressure on the Georgian Dream party to reconsider the results of the "stolen" weekend elections, because otherwise this Caucasus nation - a candidate country for membership in the European Union, and with aspirations for membership in NATO - risks losing the "European perspective".
Speaking to the Georgian Service of Radio Free Europe on October 29, Zurabishvili said that Georgia's European and Western partners should put "extreme pressure" on the authorities, "in order to review the election results, and assess how stole the elections".
Zurabishvili and opposition parties have said that around 300,000 votes were manipulated in favor of the Georgian Dream party, which claimed victory with 54 percent of the vote.
These claims have sparked protests attended by thousands of Georgians, who have accused Russian interference in the election.
"Now it depends a lot on our partners, how determined their reaction will be, how strong the pressure from the authorities will be, because I think that no one can bear the loss of Georgia to Russia in this form", Zurabishvili said in an interview for Radio Free Europe.
"If there will be no pressure, then this means that the West has not used all the means to keep Georgia on the Western side and in the European perspective."
The United States, the European Union, Canada and Sweden, among others, have voiced their criticism after the Oct. 26 parliamentary elections, which were held amid growing concerns about the erosion of democracy under Georgian Dream's leadership.
The government recently passed a controversial "foreign influence" law similar to Russia's "foreign agents" law, as well as other legislation that restricts the rights of the LGBT community.
Immediately after the publication of the results, Zurabishvili said that she does not know the result of the elections that fell victim to the "Russian special operation", through the methods of "threat campaigns and propaganda, which was a copy of Russian propaganda".
International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and NATO, have said through a statement that election day was followed by "pressure, tension and an unfair process."
Russia, on the other hand, has rejected any involvement in the Georgian elections.
The Georgian Dream Party has been in power since 2012.
It used to advance a pro-European agenda, but in the last two years it has turned towards Russia./REL
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