The opposition in Georgia continues its protests against the election results

2024-11-06 16:33:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The opposition in Georgia protested for the fourth day in a row on Wednesday against the result of parliamentary elections, which the ruling party, Georgian Dream, claims to have won, despite suspicions of major manipulation.

The opposition, which does not accept the election result, has been protesting in Tbilisi for four consecutive days after the Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party said it won 54 percent of the vote.

Even the pro-European president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, does not accept the result of the elections, saying that there were major manipulations and interference by Russia.

The protest in Tbilisi on Wednesday was held after a court in the central city of Gori on November 6 rejected a request by election observers to annul the results at several polling stations in the city, which were found to have violated the secrecy of the vote during the election. parliamentary session of October 26.

A coalition of monitoring organizations, known as Zëri Im, submitted a request to the Gori court against the Central Election Commission (CEC), demanding the annulment of the results in 14 polling stations in the city where violations were documented.

My Voice has said that its observers from 1,131 polling stations reported more than 900 cases of violations of election procedures.

But Judge Nino Gogatishvili rejected the request during a five-hour hearing, prompting representatives of My Voice to declare that they will appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered near the Court of Appeals, where appeals are being filed against lower court decisions that have rejected requests to annul votes due to manipulation.

Opposition leaders were not allowed to attend the Court of Appeal hearings, prompting them to protest outside the building.

In Tetritskaro, Judge Vladimir Kuchua ruled in favor of a complaint brought by a citizens' group called the Association of Young Lawyers, annulling the results in 30 polling stations, based on evidence presented by the group.

The CEC challenged his decision, calling it unfounded, and this prompted the opposition to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Kuchua has been hailed by the opposition as a rare and courageous judge who opposes Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2012.

Nika Melia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change, has said that the demonstrations will continue in search of new elections./ REL