Pro-Putin oligarch claims victory in Georgia elections amid vote-rigging allegations – after earlier polls steered win for opposition

A Pro Putin billionaire has claimed victory in the Georgia elections amid controversial vote-rigging allegations.

Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia would move closer to the West or back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

Government supporters were seen stuffing ballots, beating up election monitors and buying votes as the Black Sea nation went to the polls.

The ruling Georgian Dream party, switched to openly support Moscow following Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine despite the country being the most pro-Western in the region.

Early official results with 70% of precincts counted, showed the ruling party had won 53% of the vote, the electoral commission said, but the deeply divided pro-Western opposition parties claim that they had collectively clinched a majority.

Rival exit polls gave sharply different projections for the election. The Georgian Dream-supporting Imedi TV channel showed the ruling party winning 56%.

Exit polls by the pro-opposition channels showed major gains for the opposition parties.

Ivanishvili, the ruling party’s reclusive billionaire founder and onetime prime minister, claimed victory and praised the Georgian people.

But the opposition also celebrated victory and said Ivanishvili should concede.

Tina Bokuchava, leader of the United National Movement party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, said that the opposition had won by a good margin of 10%.

Bokuchava said: ‘Against that backdrop most people will be taking Bidzina Ivanishvili’s claims of a government majority with a large bucket of salt.’ 

‘We believe the Georgian public has voted clearly for a future at the heart of Europe and no amount of posturing will change that.’

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili – a one-time ally of the ruling party turned fierce critic whose powers are mostly ceremonial – and independent domestic election monitors had alleged Georgian Dream was engaged in widespread vote-buying and other forms of electoral abuse in the lead-up to the vote.

Earlier today the Mail reported clear evidence of a shameless attempt to rig proceedings today. Footage showed coaches full of villagers being handed money to vote and brawls breaking out with election monitors left bloodied.

Video circulated of an opposition election observer being savagely beaten at a polling station in Marneuli. The victim is currently in hospital.

In another clip a Georgian Dream representative Rovshan Iskandarov was seen apparently forcing dozens of voting slips into a ballot box.

Georgians reported finding their slips had been tampered with. One showed that a mark had been placed beside one party, meaning the vote would be invalidated if they ticked a separate box.

Others posted videos of multiple slips put inside one postal vote envelope while foreign journalists who have been critical of the regime have been barred entry to Georgia.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tbilisi’s relations with the West have taken a sharp downward turn. Unlike many Western allies, Georgia declined to impose sanctions on Moscow, while Georgian Dream’s rhetoric has become increasingly pro-Russian.

Georgian Dream has drawn the ire of its Western allies for what they cast as its increasingly authoritarian bent.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban congratulated Georgian Dream for an ‘overwhelming victory’.

The pro-opposition Formula exit poll said that the ruling party would be the single largest party but that the four main opposition parties combined would have 83 seats.

Georgia’s four main opposition blocs are deeply divided, and it is unclear if they will be able to work together.

The opposition bloc includes Georgia’s main opposition force—the United National Movement (UNM) of jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili—and Akhali, a newly formed party led by former justice minister Nika Gvaramia and former UNM chair Nika Melia.

Two other major players, ‘Lelo’ and ‘For Georgia,’ are headed by financier Mamuka Khazaradze and Giorgi Gakharia, the ex-Georgian Dream prime minister who has since turned into a fierce rival of Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Both Akhali founders were arrested under Georgian Dream’s rule, triggering political unrest – and ultimately leading to pardons under Western pressure.

If Georgian Dream’s win is confirmed, it will have a parliamentary majority which will stoke fears about the country’s bid for EU membership.

Brussels suspended Georgia’s membership process after Georgian Dream passed laws cracking down on freedom of speech.

Many Georgians viewed the vote as a make-or-break referendum on the opportunity to join the European Union.

Former Georgian presidential advisor Will Cathcart took aim at Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, seen as Ivanishvilis’ puppet.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘The ruling party has put Georgia on a path to Belarus 2.0.

‘So far we have beatings, more beatings, ballot stuffing, and local officials threatened by our foppish, dead-eyed PM.

‘Georgian people are not afraid. The ruling party reeks so much of desperation.’

David Bragvadze, former director of the analytic department at National Security Council, also hit out. He told the Mail: ‘We are watching traitor scum try to steal our country for Putin. But we will fight.

‘We wont let Ivanishvili continue running Putin’s errands and turn this country into Russia’s backyard.’

In a shameful display of political cynicism, Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri announced this week that new water cannons and lethal weapons have been acquired for the country’s riot police.

‘The lead-up to these elections has been steeped in fear and intimidation,’ Georgian journalist Vazha Tavberidze, writing for RFE/RL, told the Mail. ‘It’s that eerie calm before the storm—something deeply sinister. 

‘There’s little doubt that if they scrape through this election, they’ll double down, pushing harder to fulfill their threats: banning the opposition, wielding the ‘foreign agent’ law to beat independent media and NGOs into submission or drive them out altogether.’

The run-up to the crucial vote has been marred by intimidation and harsh crackdowns on dissent in a summer of political violence.

Georgian Dream was founded in 2012 by Ivanishvili to oust the previous pro-Western government which was becoming increasingly authoritarian and has ruled ever since.

While trade with Russia has increased over time, it stayed ostensibly pro-Western writing the desire to join NATO and the EU into its constitution.

It had to do so to maintain grip in the fiercely anti-Moscow country which harbours painful memories from Putin’s 2008 invasion.

But after Russia invaded Ukraine it has pumped out pro-Putin propaganda and anti-Western rhetoric, refusing to sanction Russia.

The party claims it is simply ‘pro peace’ and accuses foreign powers of trying to force Georgia open a second front in the Ukraine war in Georgia.

To undermine support for change, Georgian Dream’s campaign centred on a conspiracy theory about a ‘global war party’ that controls Western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

In a country still scarred by Russia’s 2008 invasion, the party has offered voters bogeyman stories about an imminent threat of war, which only Georgian Dream could prevent.

Billboards were erected by the party across Georgia showing harrowing scenes from bombed-out Ukrainian cities – and suggesting siding with the West could invite a new conflict with neighbouring Russia.

Many have seen through it. Georgian Dream’s passage of a controversial ‘foreign influence’ law this spring, targeting civil society, sparked weeks of mass street protests and was criticised as a Kremlin-style measure to silence dissent.

The move prompted Brussels to freeze Georgia’s EU accession process, while Washington imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials.

For Russia’s part, the Kremlin has blasted ‘unprecedented attempts at Western interference’ in the vote, accusing it of ‘trying to twist Tbilisi’s hand’ and ‘dictate terms’.

Georgia notably did not support the West’s sanctions on Moscow for the war in Ukraine, and Ivanishvili has evaded publicly condemning the invasion.

But with 80 per cent of the population supporting EU membership, the government has had to be careful not to antagonize Brussels while deepening relations with Moscow.

Still, that did not stop Ivanishvili from painting a grotesque image of the West where ‘orgies are taking place right in the streets’ in a recent TV interview.

Nestled between the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea, Georgia was once considered a rare example of a democracy among ex-Soviet nations. 

However, elections in the country regularly spark mass protests.

At the EU summit last week, EU leaders said they have ‘serious concerns regarding the course of action taken by the Georgian government.’