The United States hopes that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili will be able to provide the investigation with evidence of falsification of the parliamentary elections, which she accuses the country's authorities of, said the head of the US State Department's press service Matthew Miller.
The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the likely rigging of the parliamentary elections and summoned Zurabishvili to testify. However, she responded by calling on the prosecutor's office to get on with its business and stop the political massacre of the president. What the prosecutor's office is doing now begs more questions, she noted.
“The president can speak for herself. But my understanding is that she has said she has information about irregularities, so hopefully she can provide that information that will be relevant to any investigation, whether it's conducted by Georgian authorities or anyone else,” Miller said.
The president urged the Georgia prosecutor's office to mind its own business>>>.
At the press conference, Miller recalled the statement of U.S. President Joe Biden, published on the White House website, in which he called on the Georgian government to conduct a transparent investigation into all election violations, and expressed deep alarm at the democratic regression in Georgia.
“He (Biden - ed.) called on the Georgian authorities to conduct an investigation. We have also made clear that we are consulting with our colleagues in the European Union about what other investigations might be appropriate,” Miller added.
The State Department spokesman once again reminded that the US continues to review bilateral relations with Georgia.
“We have made it clear that our relationship with the Georgian government continues to be under review. We have already suspended $95 million in assistance to the Georgian government, and other assistance we are providing remains under review,” Miller noted.
The U.S. warned Georgia about retaliatory measures in case the current course is maintained>>>
At the same time, the US State Department spokesman expressed support for the protesters against the voting results in Georgia.
“We want to make sure that their freedom to protest, their freedom to exercise their fundamental right to expression is not in any way infringed upon,” Miller said.
The ruling Georgian Dream party won 53.93% of the vote according to the results of the Central Election Commission's processing of data from 99.97% of polling stations. All four opposition forces that made it to parliament, the NGOs supporting them and Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili refused to recognize these results, claiming fraud.
According to a joint OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE PA, PACE, NATO PA and European Parliament mission, the Georgian parliamentary elections were well organized, with a wide choice of voters and many international observers, but there were imbalances in party funding, pressure on public officials and many cases of voter intimidation.
The Georgian authorities stated that the conclusion of the international mission confirmed the legitimacy of the parliamentary elections.
The latest CEC data on the election results:
“Georgian Dream“ (”Georgian Dream”, ‘Power of the People’) - 53.96%;
“Coalition for Change“ (”Akhali”, ‘Girchi - More Freedom’, ‘Droa’) - 11.034%;
“Unity - National Movement“ (”United National Movement”, ‘Agmashenebeli Strategy’, ‘European Georgia’) - 10.166%;
“Strong Georgia“ (”Lelo for Georgia”, ‘For the People’, ‘Freedom Square’, ‘Citizens’) - 8.809%;
“For Georgia” - 7.769%.
Parliamentary elections were held for the first time in Georgia only by proportional system (by party lists) and on a large scale with the use of electronic technologies - verification and vote counting machines.
Reprinted from https://sputnik-georgia.ru
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