Georgia President Urges Election Coalition Against Ruling Party
(Bloomberg) -- Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili urged two opposition forces to unite against the ruling party at parliamentary elections that she said would decide whether the country will join the European Union or return to Russia’s orbit.
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“A turning point in Georgian history is approaching,” she said in a speech ahead of talks with the parties planned for Tuesday. The Oct. 26 election “will determine whether our future will be Europe or whether we’ll be under the influence of Russia.”
Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ruling Georgian Dream party is seeking to retain power after triggering mass protests with legislation the US and the EU say resembles laws used by President Vladimir Putin to crush civil liberties in Russia. The EU has frozen membership negotiations with Georgia and the US State Department on Monday imposed visa restrictions on more than 60 Georgians for “undermining democracy” in the country.
Georgian Dream is supported by 34% of voters, while 19% back the opposition Unification grouping, according to a survey of 1,000 people by Edison Research conducted Aug. 29 to Sept. 8. Nearly 11% favor ex-Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party and another 10% back former banker Mamuka Khazaradze’s Lelo Strong Georgia party.
Zourabichvili said she’s invited Lelo Strong Georgia and For Georgia to take part in coalition talks to offer a “positive” pro-European alternative for undecided voters.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the president was interfering in the electoral process and “clearly violates the constitution.”
The ruling party on Tuesday passed legislation in parliament banning “LGBT propaganda” that outlaws portrayals of same-sex relationships in films, television and advertising, prevents the registration of same-sex marriages and makes it illegal for non-heterosexual couples to adopt children.
Zourabichvili sided with protesters who gathered in the capital Tbilisi for weeks to oppose a “foreign agent” law adopted by Georgian Dream in May that targets non-governmental organizations and independent media receiving at least 20% of their income from abroad. Those refusing to register with the government as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” face fines and imprisonment.
The government overrode a presidential veto and ignored warnings from Washington and Brussels that the “foreign agent” law endangered Georgia’s ambitions of joining the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Kobakhidze called the criticism “insulting blackmail.” He has backed claims by Ivanishvili that a “global war party” in the West is plotting to oust the government using NGOs and to push the country into a war with Russia.
Ivanishvili on Saturday blamed “external forces” and the government of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili for a 2008 war between Georgia and Russia over two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Speaking in the city of Gori, close to territory occupied by Russian troops, he said Georgia should apologize for the war to those living in nearby South Ossetia.
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