France added its voice on Monday night for an inquiry into alleged irregularities in the weekend elections in Georgia after the victory of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
According to results announced by the electoral commission, the Georgian Dream party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili won 54.08 percent of the vote.
The pro-EU coalition claimed 37.58 percent and has refused to concede defeat to a party it accuses of pro-Kremlin authoritarianism.
"We expect the Georgian authorities to investigate the irregularities observed before and during the vote," said a French foreign ministry spokesperson.
France's call followed a demand from EU chief Ursula von der Leyen for an independent investigation into the vote.
"For so many years now, the people of Georgia have been striving and fighting for democracy," she said in a speech at the College of Europe in the Belgian city of Bruges.
"They have a right to know what happened this weekend. And they have a right to see that electoral irregularities are investigated swiftly, transparently and independently.
In an interview with the French news agency AFP on Monday, Georgia's President Salome Zourabishvili, who is pro-Western and opposed to the government, hit out at what she called a sophisticated system of fraud based on a Russian methodology.
She said it had enabled the ruling party to win the legislative elections.
Sophistication
"This sophistication, this accuracy in the targets that were taken, is more than a traditional government here has been able to defraud in order to stay in power.
"Given the relationship between the party in power and Russia, and the fact that their election propaganda was totally modelled on Russian propaganda and that they have PR specialists who also come from Russia, this is a Russian methodology," she added.
Zourabichvili claims the fraud was perpetrated through electronic voting, which was being used for the first time in Georgia. She said the same identity card numbers were sometimes found corresponding to 17 votes, 20 votes, in different regions.
She says the alleged fraudsters bought votes, put pressure on public officials and on the families of prisoners who could be promised release.
She claims that money was visibly distributed in minibuses as people left the polling stations.
Protest
Zourabichivili had urged people to take to the streets after the results were announced.
"You did not lose the elections," she told protesters many of whom were draped in the flags of Georgia and the European Union.
"Your vote was stolen and they tried to steal your future as well.
"Together, peacefully, as we are today, we will defend what is ours: your constitutional right to have your vote respected."
Under its constitution, Georgia officially aspires to join the EU and Nato.
But since the enactment in May of a law on ‘foreign influence’ targeting civil society and copied from Russia's legislation on ‘foreign agents’, Brussels has frozen the EU accession process and the United States has imposed sanctions on Georgian officials.
The result will give Georgian Dream 91 seats in the 150-member parliament – enough to govern but short of the supermajority it had sought to pass a constitutional ban on all main opposition parties.
"Our victory is impressive," Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said in a statement, accusing the opposition of undermining the country's constitutional order by questioning his party's victory.
However, international observers said Saturday's election was "marred by an uneven playing field, pressure and tension".
An EU parliament mission also expressed concern about democratic backsliding. It reported instances of ballot box stuffing and the physical assault of observers. But as the US and EU said they were concerned about the legitimacy of the vote, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in the country to show his support to Georgian Dream.
Orban, whose country is the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, congratulated Georgian Dream for an overwhelming victory on Saturday after one exit poll showed the government in the lead and before preliminary results were published.
Just before Orban's arrival, other EU leaders condemned the vote. "The President of Georgia has announced that the parliamentary elections were falsified. Europe must now stand with the Georgian people," Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X.
Opposition parties have lined up to denounce the vote. "This is an attempt to steal Georgia's future," said Tina Bokuchava, leader of Saakashvili's United National Movement.
Nika Gvaramia, leader of the liberal Ahali party, denounced the way the vote was held as a constitutional coup.
