Opposition Says Results ‘Illegitimate,’ Announces Street Protests
Georgian opposition political parties, including the United National Movement, Labor Party, Republican Party, Victorious Georgia, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, and Democratic Movement – United Georgia, among others, announced starting street protests as the preliminary results of October 31 general election shows incumbent ruling Georgian Dream party having strong lead to the opposition with over 50% of votes.
Rejecting the delayed preliminary results as “illegitimate,” the opposition parties said they will kick of rallies to protest the results at 16:00, on Sunday.
Announcing the opposition’s decision, UNM’s Nika Melia said “this has not been an election, this has been a war, that we have not lost.” Melia said the opposition will unveil “major details” in the afternoon as the protest starts.
Shalva Natelashvili, Labor party leader, on his part, spoke of “usurped power” and accused GD leader “Ivanishvili’s oligarchy and Putin’s agencies” of committing the state coup.
According to the updated preliminary results as of 05:20, from 1538 out of 3847 precincts (39.98% of precincts), the governing Georgian Dream party garnered 50.93% (306,282) votes, followed by the United National Movement with 24.68% (148,416), European Georgia – 3.87% (23,288), Alliance of Patriots – 3.33% (20,042), Lelo for Georgia 3.08% (18,526), Strategy Aghmashenebeli – 2.96% (17,812), Girchi – 2.8% (16,845), the Citizens – 1.32% (7,940), Labor Party – 0.99% (5,966), and the Democratic Movement – United Georgia – 0.8% (4,784).
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