Our election was ‘stolen’ and Russians were behind it, Georgia president Salome Zourabichvili claims
The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, has almost finished her six-year term in what is largely a ceremonial position, yet the French-born politician has become far more than a figurehead over the past few years.
She has led opposition to a set of repressive laws introduced by the country’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, and more importantly, perhaps, managed to unite a fractious opposition in its attempts to unseat the government in Saturday’s parliamentary election.
Yet those attempts have failed after Georgian Dream, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, claimed 54% of the vote.
Leaders of the main opposition parties, alongside Ms Zourabichvili, say the election was stolen.
Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili addresses a protest rally against the election result. Pic: Reuters
In an interview at the elegant Orbeliani Palace in the capital Tbilisi, I reminded President Zourabichvili of the statement she gave after casting her vote.
“You were convinced that the opposition would win. You said ‘tonight, victory will be ours. Our dreams will come true’. What happened?,” I asked her.
“I was right,” she said. “We won the elections. The pro-European forces won the elections. The fact that they were stolen is a different story.”
The president said various methods were used to rig the vote but argued the introduction of new electronic voting machines was key.
“All the forms [of fraud] were used plus new technologies. The electronic equipment that was for the first time used in the elections in Georgia was used to reproduce votes. With one ID, you could vote 15, 17, 20 times and that is being documented in many [ways].”
Georgian Dream party leader Bidzina Ivanishvili. Pic: Reuters
Reports of ballot box stuffing
International election observers said they witnessed a series of fraudulent and unfair practices in the lead-up to, and on election day.
Cases of ballot box stuffing, double-voting, intimidation, and other forms of pressure were reported but election monitors did not condemn the election outright.
A video shared on social media showed a man stuffing ballots into a box at a polling station in Marneuli
I suggested to President Zourabichvili that it was problematic for her that the observers had refrained from declaring the poll invalid.
“No, it’s not a problem because international observer missions never condemn elections two days after the election.
“The observation is done more by locals than by these international observers who have travelled through the country and it’s very difficult for them.”
Was election a ‘Russian special operation’?
Infuriated by the result, leading figures in the opposition have described the election as a “Russian special operation” that was planned in Moscow and executed by the leader of Georgian Dream, Mr Ivanishvili.
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Voting irregularities in Georgia
I asked the president whether she agreed with that claim.
“Yes, I think so, I don’t know whether it was planned in Moscow, but the methodology, the sophistication, the extent, the fact that in different places of the country, different methods were used in parallel, all of that is a very good organisation.
“It’s not something that was just something, ‘I tried to fraud here and there’. It was very well planned in advance.”
“It’s a strong accusation to make,” I countered. “Some people are going to say the real problem here is that the opposition, including yourself, are refusing to accept the verdict of the election.”
She told me to look at the popular protests fuelled by the ruling party’s decision to pass a Russian-style ‘foreign agent’ law.
The bill, which was passed in May, restricts the ability of media and civil society groups in receipt of foreign funds to function normally.
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“The will of the Georgian population was shown on the streets last March, April, and those hundreds of thousands of people – have they disappeared?”, the president asked.
Fears of violence
I asked her if she was trying to unseat the government.
“I’m not there to unseat anyone,” she said. “I have made a judgement on the elections… I’m the only independent institution in the country that is left. Those who have to confirm it are the people.”
Challenged over whether people could get hurt, Ms Zourbichvili was blunt in her response.
“Well, people will get hurt,” she said.
So, did she expect her time as president to end in uncertainty and instability?
“Certainly not. And I hope it won’t.”
Israel has shown little respect for international borders since becoming the unrivalled military hegemon of the Middle East. Today that meant an Israeli airstrike on a government building in Damascus.
Israel says its attack on a Syrian defence ministry facility was intended as a warning to the new government: stay out of the part of southern Syria we have occupied or else.
Israel has moved into parts of the south of the country, built military bases and declared a line of control.
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Syrian Defence Ministry in Damascus. Pic: AP
On Monday, Syrian tanks heading south to try and restore order following an outbreak of factional fighting were attacked by Israeli warplanes.
“The presence of such vehicles in southern Syria could pose a threat to Israel,” stated the Israel Defence Forces.
In reality, Syria’s ageing tanks pose minimal threat to Israel’s state-of-the art military.
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Syrian presenter interrupted by Israeli airstrike
The Syrian armour was attacked as it entered the area around Sweida in the Druze heartland of southern Syria following factional fighting there.
The flare-up reportedly began with clashes between Bedouin and Druze groups that ended in scores killed.
The background to the escalation is complicated.
At least three Druze militia groups are divided in their loyalties to different religious leaders and differ over how they should respond to calls to assimilate into the new post-revolutionary Syria.
Druze from Syria and Israel protest on the Israeli-Syrian border.
Pic: AP
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Israel is becoming more and more involved in Syria’s internecine war and says it will remain there indefinitely “to protect our communities and thwart any threat”.
Its critics say Israel is operating a policy of divide and rule in Syria, weakening the fledgling government and creating a buffer zone to protect the border with the Golan Heights – originally Syrian territory that it has occupied and annexed for almost half a century.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has used airstrikes to destroy of much of Syria’s military capability weakening its ability to impose control on outlying regions. This makes it more not less likely Israel will have a volatile unstable state on its northern border.
Syrian security forces walk along a street in the southern Druze city of Sweida. Pic: Reuters
America and European powers have chosen to normalise relations with the new government in Damascus and lift sanctions.
In contrast Israel has occupied its territory, bombed its military and today hit one of its government buildings in the capital with an airstrike.
Since its crushing military campaigns against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, Israel has emerged as the unchallenged military power of the region.
There is however a limit to what blunt force can achieve alone. It requires diplomacy to achieve lasting gains and Israel’s repeated assaults on multiple neighbours combined with its relentless campaign in Gaza are winning it few friends in the region.
Israeli airstrikes have targeted the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus amid renewed clashes in the country.
The gate of the Ministry of Defence in the Syrian capital was targeted by two warning missiles from an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft.
State-owned Elekhbariya TV said the Israeli strike had wounded two civilians, the Reuters news agency reported.
Smoke rises from Syria’s defence ministry building in Damascus. Pic: Reuters
It came as Israeli airstrikes targeted security and army vehicles in the southern city of Sweida, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups – marking the third consecutive day Israel has struck Syrian forces.
The Israeli military confirmed it had “struck the entrance gate” in Damascus – and that it would be monitoring “actions being taken against Druze civilians in southern Syria”.
The Israeli airstrike targeted Syria’s military headquarters. Pic: AP
Why Israel is getting involved in Syria’s internal fighting
Israel has shown little respect for international borders since becoming the unrivalled military hegemon of the Middle East. Today that meant an Israeli airstrike on a government building in Damascus.
Israel says its attack on a Syrian defence ministry facility was intended as a warning to the new government: stay out of the part of southern Syria we have occupied or else.
Israel has moved into parts of the south of the country, built military bases and declared a line of control.
On Monday, Syrian tanks heading south to try and restore order following an outbreak of factional fighting were attacked by Israeli warplanes.
“The presence of such vehicles in southern Syria could pose a threat to Israel,” stated the Israel Defence Forces.
In reality, Syria’s ageing tanks pose minimal threat to Israel’s state-of-the art military.
Local media said Sweida and nearby villages were coming under heavy artillery and mortar fire on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The clashes marked the collapse of a ceasefire between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups, with Israel also warning it would increase its involvement.
Syria said its forces had responded to being fired upon. Pic: Reuters
Israel said it was acting to protect the Druze groups through its attacks on convoys of Syrian forces.
Syria blamed militias in Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement which had only been reached on Tuesday.
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A statement from its defence ministry said: “Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes.”
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said the military will continue to strike Syrian forces until they withdraw and should “leave Druze alone”, according to local reports.
At least 20 people have been killed in an incident in Khan Younis, according to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israel and US-backed organisation.
In a statement, it said 19 people were trampled and one was stabbed in a surge “driven by agitators in the crowd”.
“We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest,” it said.
“For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated. An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident.”
It provided no evidence to support the claim.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed 21 Palestinians were killed, “including 15 who died of suffocation as a result of tear gas fired at the starving people and the subsequent stampede” at the GHF site.
Read analysis: Deaths go up when aid sites open
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
The statement is unusual for the GHF, as the controversial group, which has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups, rarely acknowledges trouble at its distribution sites.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the territory.
It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.
The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner. It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.
After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the UN has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”
People carry distributed aid supplies in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. File pic: AP
The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups – which refuse to work with the GHF – had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
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Since the GHF sites began operating, more than 875 people have been killed while receiving aid, both at GHF distribution points or elsewhere, according to the UN human rights office and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
At least 674 of those have been killed in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by the GHF.
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