Georgian President Mikheil's Saakashvili party has won parliamentary polls with 59.5 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said yesterday.
The main opposition bloc, the United Opposition Council, came second with 17.7 percent, commission spokesman Zurab Kachkachishvili said.
Georgia’s opposition yesterday threatened protests and a parliamentary boycott over this week’s elections, as European states backing Saakashvili rallied to his side.
But the main opposition bloc stepped up criticism of what it says was a rigged poll.
Some opposition figures have called for a rally on Monday, raising fears of renewed political instability.
“These elections don’t reflect the people’s choice and the people’s will. We are not recognizing the results,” David Gamkrelidze of the New Rights party said in televised remarks.
“The opposition is seriously considering the possibility of boycotting the new parliament,” he said, echoing similar threats by other opposition leaders.
The elections were intensely scrutinized by outside powers as Georgia is engaged in a stand-off with Soviet-era master Russia centered on two separatist Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Behind the dispute lies Saakashvili’s pro-Western course and drive to join NATO, analysts say.
Western election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Georgia had clearly intended a democratic vote but that there had been “problems,” including intimidation of voters.
Georgian officials cast the criticism in a positive light, saying the observers must be applying higher standards as the country moves closer to Western-style democracy.
“We are actually quite proud that we are judged by western European standards and not post-Soviet standards,” Deputy Interior Minister Ekaterine Zguladze said.
Supporters in Europe also rallied behind Saakashvili, although the US had yet to comment, as had major states such as Germany.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU presidency, said the vote was “encouraging.”
The EU commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said the elections showed “substantial progress.”
The presidents of Lithuania and Poland, countries that were under Moscow’s control in the Soviet era, also praised the vote.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said: “Georgia has passed the democracy exam.”
Georgia seeks Western support in its stand-off with Russia and the vote was seen as a test of its ability to meet Western standards.
Saakashvili’s party was set to win a strong majority both of the 75 parliamentary seats assigned under a party list system and the 75 assigned to single mandate constituencies.
He has been praised as a democratic reformer since coming to power in 2004, but was criticized last November after sending riot police to suppress an opposition protest, shutting a critical TV station and briefly imposing emergency rule.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese