The ruling party won the second round in the municipal elections in Georgia, according to the official results announced this Sunday, considered fraudulent by the opposition, whose leader is on a hunger strike in jail, and which is calling for a demonstration.
Mikhail Saakashvili, president of the Caucasian country from 2004 to 2013, was jailed in early October after secretly returning from exile days before the first round.
The pro-Western reformer has been on a hunger strike for a month to protest his imprisonment, which he says is politically motivated.
The second round of the elections took place on Saturday in some municipalities of this former Soviet republic, especially in large cities.
The ruling party, Sueño Georgiano, won by a narrow margin in 19 of the 20 localities where its candidates faced off against those of the United National Movement (MNU), Saakashvili’s party, the Central Electoral Commission reported on Sunday.
“I congratulate everyone on our victory in the second round. We have won in every city,” Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told television.
For his part, the leader of the MNU, Nika Melia, assured that the opposition will not recognize these results and accused the Georgia Dream of having “stolen the elections.”
“There are no more elections in this country. Compatriots, you who share the values of European democracy, prepare for a fight without compromise,” said Melia. He stressed that this “difficult” fight will continue “until there is the possibility of organizing free and fair elections.”
Melia announced a protest rally against the results on Sunday in front of Parliament.
The ruling party declared victory after the first round on October 2, while the opposition spoke of fraud.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) stated that the elections were “well organized from a technical point of view” but denounced “intimidation, vote buying and pressure on candidates and voters”, which gave the party in the power “undue advantage”.
Saakashvili’s imprisonment has further aggravated the political crisis in this country, which began with last year’s legislative elections won narrowly by the Georgian Dream, a result that was considered fraudulent by the opposition.
