TBILISI – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave a boost Tuesday to Georgia’s ruling party, saying its victory in a parliamentary election in the South Caucasus nation was free and democratic despite a massive opposition protest that denounced the vote as rigged and illegitimate.
Orbán, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest partner in the European Union, is the first foreign leader to visit Georgia following Saturday's vote that the country's electoral commission said was won by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
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Georgia's president and opposition said the election was “stolen” with the help of Russia, claiming there was widespread ballot fraud and violence, with the EU and the U.S. calling for a full investigation.
But Orbán gave a different assessment after meeting with his counterpart, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, and congratulating him on the victory by his Georgian Dream party.
“I look at the debate that has erupted around the election, I read the evaluations of international organizations, and I see that no one dares to question that this election was a free and democratic choice," Orbán said.
People rallied outside parliament Monday night, demanding a new election under international supervision and an investigation into the alleged vote rigging. The protest underlined tensions in the country which lies between Russia and Turkey and where the Georgian Dream party has become increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow.
Orbán was booed after arriving at his hotel in Tbilisi on Monday evening. Protesters called him a “political prostitute" and “puppet” in Russian and Hungarian, using expletives to tell him to leave the country.
Kobakhidze said Orbán's visit had “particular significance” as it takes place during Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union although the bloc said he doesn't have any mandate for the visit.
Georgian Dream told voters it is committed to joining the EU despite the fact Brussels suspended Georgia’s membership process after the party adopted a Russian-style “foreign influence law” in June that critics say curbs press freedom.
Pursuit of EU membership and NATO is written into Georgia's constitution and many in the country of 3.7 million viewed Saturday’s vote as a pivotal referendum on the opportunity to join the bloc.
Georgian Dream, established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, has adopted laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
The party campaigned on joining Europe with “dignity" — a principle Kobakhidze referenced Tuesday when he suggested Georgia and Hungary shared “Christian values,” possibly alluding to similar laws passed in Hungary.
Orbán said it was clear “the opposition and the ruling party are committed to European integration," rejecting opposition claims that Georgian Dream opposes it.
“While you are pursuing a pro-European policy, you have not allowed your country to become a second Ukraine,” Orbán said, urging Kobakhidze to ignore any criticism about the election.
Orbán’s comments appeared to echo some of Georgian Dream’s campaign rhetoric that accused the opposition of trying to destabilize the country and hinted that Ukraine's fate could befall Georgia.
President Salome Zourabichvili, who has rejected the election results, told The Associated Press on Monday that Georgia has fallen victim to Russian pressure against joining the EU. She said she hopes the West backs the opposition and protesters who are disputing the result of the election.
“We’ve seen that Russian propaganda was directly used,” said Zourabichvili, whose duties are mostly ceremonial president. A fierce critic of Georgian Dream, she said the government has been “working hand-in-hand with Russia,” and “probably” received help from Moscow’s security services. The Kremlin rejected accusations of interference.
Zourabichvili said “technology” was used to manipulate the vote and suggested some voter IDs were confiscated before the election from prisoners or people on welfare and used to vote “up to 17 times.”
Monday night's protest ended peacefully, with no clear plans for further actions from the president or opposition, and it was unclear who would investigate the alleged voting irregularities.
“There is no trust for the state to investigate these cases," said Natia Seskuria, executive director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies in Tbilisi.
“The most immediate task that they have is to prove the elections were rigged,” she said, adding it will be difficult in a system which is “largely run by the ruling party.”
Civil society and opposition groups claim to have widespread evidence of violence, fraud and other voting irregularities but it is unclear how they will demonstrate it, Seskuria said.
The Central Election Commission said Tuesday it was asked by opposition parties to provide a list of people who cast ballots. It declined, said CEC spokeswoman Natia Ioseliani, citing the risk of disclosing “personal data,” which is “one of the recognized fundamental principles of elections.”
Accepting the election result would mean “Georgia is lost for its people and Georgia is lost for Europe for the foreseeable future,” said Zaza Bibilashvili, founder of the Chavchavadze Center, a civil society organization.
“The stakes,” he said, “are very high.”
Zourabichvili urged the West not to abandon Georgia in the election's aftermath.
Asked if she wants sanctions imposed on Georgian officials, Zourabichvili told AP that it’s up to Western leaders but that “certainly time has not come to renew relations with authorities that are not legitimate.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Georgian authorities to hold a “transparent inquiry” and said the “democratic backsliding in the country needs to be reversed.”
President Joe Biden said he was “deeply alarmed by the country’s recent democratic backsliding, including the enactment of legislation mirroring Russian laws that restrict fundamental freedoms and limit the space for independent civil society organizations.”
“We call on the Georgian government to transparently investigate all election irregularities, to repeal laws such as the so-called ‘Foreign Influence Law’ that limit freedoms of assembly and expression, and to begin an immediate, inclusive dialogue with all political forces in Georgia about restoring election integrity,” Biden said in a statement.
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Associated Press writer Sophiko Megrelidze in Tbilisi contributed.