Brussels, 02/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 October, EU representatives hailed the way elections had been held in Georgia. First results show victory for the opposition party, Georgian Dream, headed by the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili who is close to Russia, over the United National Movement, under President Mikhail Saakhashvili.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz congratulated Georgia on “conducting free, competitive and peaceful elections, despite the often tense and polarising electoral campaign”, saying: “Despite certain procedural shortcomings, these elections are a sign of Georgia's growing political and democratic maturity”. He also praised all the political forces for having shown restraint and trusts there will be constructive and praiseworthy cooperation between the executive and legislative powers in Georgia during the likely period of cohabitation. The EU congratulates the opposition and the party of the Georgian president for the constructive nature and the openness of their first reactions after such a combative and intense electoral campaign, stressed Maja Kocijanci, the spokesperson for the EU high representative for foreign affairs. MEP Milan Cabrnoch (ECR, Czech Republic), who heads the delegation of eight MEPs as election observers, underlined the important and crucial nature of the elections in terms of ongoing democratic development in Georgia, explaining that there was progress visible in the field of freedoms, mainly allowing the very active and dynamic participation of citizens and a campaign in which competition could play a part, even though it was polarised.
Continuation of EU/Georgia cooperation.
Kocijanci also underlined that the EU plans to continue close cooperation with Georgia and remains committed not only at the level of political association but also that of economic integration. Schulz said that the European Parliament “hopes to see relations between the European Union and Georgia further strengthened, irrespective of which government is formed after the polls”. Guy Verhofstadt, who heads the ALDE Group at the European Parliament, said the EU should step up its support for Georgia according to the “more for more” principle, intensifying its work to finalise talks on the association agreement and on the suppression of visas for Georgian citizens.
According to the first partial results (from 25% of the voting offices), the Georgian Dream coalition is said to have 53.2% of the votes on the ballot list, which represents 77 seats out of the 150 in parliament. For the 73 uninominal seats per constituency, Georgian Dream would have at least 27 seats; against 25 for the United National Movement. Ivanishvili said his party would win by no fewer than 100 out of the 150 seats and hopes to become prime minister.
Observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stressed on Tuesday that these elections are a major step towards enhancing the organisation of democratic elections, although a number of key problems have still to be resolved. According to the OSCE, the process has shown deep respect for the fundamental freedoms that lie at the heart of any democratic election and it expects that the final result will reflect the voters' choice. (CG/transl.jl)