Georgia was offered to hold new elections

The North-Baltic Eight (NB8) countries propose that Georgia hold new parliamentary elections in line with OSCE recommendations, according to a joint statement published on the website of the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

‘Georgia urgently needs to overcome the crisis and restore public confidence in its democratic institutions. We call on the Georgian authorities to take immediate steps in this direction, including by implementing the OSCE election recommendations and considering holding new elections based on these recommendations,’ the text reads.

The statement adds that the Nordic and Baltic countries are concerned that Georgia is allegedly heading towards ‘deeper polarisation and crisis’.

‘We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into the violations revealed before and during the 26 October parliamentary elections,’ the statement reads.

The North Baltic Eight (NB8) is a regional co-operation format comprising Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.

Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on 26 October. According to the CEC, the ruling Georgian Dream party, which favours preserving relations with Russia and opposes anti-Russian sanctions, won 53.93 per cent of the vote. Four opposition parties also passed into parliament with a total of 37.78 per cent. Salome Zurabishvili said after the election that she would not step down as president. She believes that ‘with an illegitimate parliament there can be no legitimate presidential elections’ and declared herself the only legitimate representative of power in the country.

On the fourteenth of December, elections for a new president were held in Georgia. The CEC announced that the candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mikhail Kavelashvili, was elected, receiving 224 out of 300 votes. Kavelashvili was inaugurated on 29 December. Zurabishvili said she would leave the presidential palace, taking ‘legitimacy and the flag’ with her, but would ‘stay with the people’ and fight for new parliamentary elections. She still does not recognise Kavelashvili as president and considers the whole inauguration process a ‘travesty’.

Reprinted from https://ria.ru/