Georgia to recount votes after opposition rejects election loss
Pro-Western parties are demanding a new poll, promising mass street protests and a boycott of parliament | Georgian election officials intend to recount ballots at five randomly selected polling stations in each voting district on Tuesday. Opposition forces in the post-Soviet country have denounced the outcome of last weekend’s parliamentary election as “fraudulent” after the ruling party secured a fresh majority in parliament. ● In the capital Tbilisi, the repeat tally will begin in the evening, with similar procedures in Georgian regions, according to an announcement made by the central election commission on Monday. Authorized observers will be present, it added. ● Georgian Dream, the conservative populist party currently in charge of the country, received just under 54% of the votes, with over 99.9% ballots counted. The four opposition parties that crossed the 5% threshold to enter parliament are threatening to reject the mandates won by their candidates. ● The pro-Western opposition has accused the government of rigging the poll. During a protest in Tbilisi on Monday, they declared they would accept nothing short of a new internationally-supervised election.
■ Orban blasts West’s ‘useless lecturing’ of Georgia (RT.com)