Uncertainty grips Georgia as opposition street protests end in anticlimax — for now

TBILISI, Georgia — Anti-government parties in Georgia vowed to seek international support to overturn a bitterly contested nationwide election that returned a strong victory for the ruling party, with public demonstrations on Monday night remaining calm.

Opposition figures took to a stage outside the parliament to demand a re-run of the Oct. 26 poll, which independent observers say was marred by violence, intimidation and procedural irregularities. While tens of thousands attended, many waving EU and Georgian flags, crowds were smaller than at protests called by civil society groups against authoritarian new legislation over the summer.

“We do not recognize the legitimacy of this parliament,” said Tina Bokuchava, leader of the “Unity — National Movement” coalition, pledging to boycott the formation of a new parliament after the ruling Georgian Dream party was returned with a majority. “We do not recognize the rigged elections, we refuse our mandates; publish the [voter] lists and demand new elections until victory!”

The country’s independently-elected pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, has called the Georgian Dream victory “a Russian special operation.” In an interview earlier on Monday she said “we need to have these elections corrected, either through an investigation, which is not available and where maybe our European partners can support us in that, or it will have to be corrected by new elections.”

Georgian Dream, however, has insisted the elections were fair, and said calls for a boycott from opposition MPs would soon be forgotten. The opposition dispersed the Monday evening protests, saying they would decide on further action in the coming days.

“I was born and raised in the USSR,” said Ana, who had joined the crowds outside the parliament. “We know that truth will prevail.”

“There is no time for pessimism. You should be determined to defend [your votes],” Zourabichvili told thousands of protesters gathered at the Georgian parliament Monday night.

“I spoke to six presidents, including the presidents of EU member states. I spoke to foreign ministers … everybody except one person that just passed here, told me that nobody recognizes the results of the election,” she said — a veiled dig at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who had arrived in Georgia to congratulate the ruling party earlier in the day.

Minutes before the protest began, the Hungarian leader was spotted in a nearby hotel, where the opposition had also held a meeting. He was later booed by demonstrators.

“Georgia is a conservative, Christian and pro-Europe state. Instead of useless lecturing, they need our support on their European path,” Orbán said in a post on X.

Georgia’s EU membership application was frozen earlier this year amid warnings of backsliding on human rights and repression after Georgian Dream pushed through a divisive package of Russian-style laws targeting civil society and the LGBTQ+ community.

Europe is still divided on its response to the Saturday election, with Brussels calling for an investigation into alleged wrongdoing and individual member states expressing concern.

The U.S., however, has taken a tougher line — having already imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream politicians and police officers for cracking down on peaceful demonstrations over the summer.

Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the foreign policy panel, said the ruling party’s actions had “severely compromised the standards for democratic elections.” They also threatened to push for new sanctions on Georgia, saying in a statement that “if needed, we will make additional changes to our bipartisan legislation, the Georgian People’s Act, to ensure that those responsible for fraud and manipulation of the election process are held accountable.”

The U.S. government has options at its disposal to punish Tbilisi, explained Michael Cecire, a former congressional staffer who now teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. “If fraud is indeed responsible for shifting the results of the election,” Cecire said, “Washington and Brussels should make it clear that [they] will move to hold those responsible accountable, and the aid and assistance posture will have to change accordingly.”

“We’re going to watch very carefully as events unfold in the next few days,” a senior U.S. government official told POLITICO. “Obviously, Georgian citizens have a right to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and it’s going to be critical that the government fully respect [the] rule of law and fundamental freedoms.”