Georgia, Moldova votes marred by Russian meddling, threatening EU paths

European Union candidate countries Georgia and Moldova have taken decisive but divergent steps towards EU membership following recent votes marred by accusations of Russian interference.

On Georgia: Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) declared the incumbent conservative nationalist and pro-Russian Georgian Dream party of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze the winner of the October 26 parliamentary elections – an outcome heavily contested by the opposition as well as by international players such as the European Union and the United States.

Pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili accused Moscow of being behind election fraud in Georgia, saying it was part of a “Russian special operation” and Tbilisi’s opposition has accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of taking orders from Moscow.

Following widespread accusations of irregularities and protests against the results, the CEC said on Tuesday it will recount votes in 14 percent of polling stations in Georgia. The authorities “will conduct a recount in five polling stations in each constituency”, according to a statement from the commission. 

On Moldova: On October 20, Moldova voted by a wafer-thin majority to enshrine a pro-EU course into the constitution, after a referendum beset with accusations that Russia tried to manipulate the vote. With all the votes counted, 50.46 percent of voters approved the constitutional change.

On the same day, Moldova held the first round of the presidential election which was won by the  pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu. She garnered 42.3 percent of the vote, compared to 26 percent her main rival Alexandr Stoianoglo secured, a pro-Russian former attorney general. Sandu is expected to face a tough second round of presidential elections in the November 3 vote against Stoianoglo.

Georgia in political turmoil over disputed elections

Georgia’s electoral commission declared Georgian Dream the winner of the elections with a vote share of about 54 percent, according to preliminary figures. About 37.8 percent of votes were garnered by a union of four pro-Western opposition alliances.

The result gave Georgian Dream 89 seats in the 150-member parliament – enough to govern but short of the supermajority it had sought to pass a constitutional ban on all the main opposition parties.

Tens of thousands protested on Monday evening in the Georgian capital Tbilisi against the victory of the Georgian Dream party, amid calls from the opposition for a re-run under international supervision.

President Zourabichvili – at loggerheads with the ruling party – told the cheering crowd: “Your votes were stolen, but we will not let anyone steal our future.”

She claimed that “quite sophisticated” fraudulent schemes were used in the weekend’s vote. She earlier declared the election results “illegitimate”, alleging election interference by a “Russian special operation”.

She claimed that the same identity cards were used to vote multiple times in different regions, that money was distributed outside polling stations, and that there were violations using electronic voting technology.

The Kremlin has denied that Russia interfered in the election, saying that European states were the ones to have put pressure on Georgia. 

The dominant figure, founder and leader of the Georgian Dream party is billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Moscow, and favours reconciliation with Russia and cooperation with China. Ivanishvili is highly critical of the West.

EU criticises irregularities and Russian meddling

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for an independent probe into “irregularities” in Georgia’s election, insisting that Georgians had a “right to know what happened”. The EU and the United States have called on Tbilisi to open investigations into the allegations of irregularities.

Ministers from 13 European Union countries also condemned the “violation of international norms” in Georgia’s contested parliamentary elections, labelling them “incompatible with the standards expected from a candidate” to the EU.

European Council President Charles Michel also called on the electoral commission and relevant authorities to “swiftly, transparently and independently investigate and adjudicate electoral irregularities and allegations thereof” in a post on X.

Michel said he would put Georgia on the agenda of the informal EU summit in Budapest scheduled for November 8.

Georgian Dream has for months been accused by the opposition of steering Tbilisi away from its goal of joining the EU and back into Russia’s orbit.

The former Soviet republic on Russia’s southern border has been a candidate for EU membership since December 2023. However, Brussels has put accession talks on hold because of several repressive laws that the Georgian Dream has pushed through this year.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday tried to ease the tense political situation in the country by reassuring voters that the country remained committed to the EU. Georgia wants to fully integrate into the bloc by 2030, he said at a government meeting in Tbilisi.

Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán, a dissenting voice within the European Union who has retained close ties to Moscow, had rushed to congratulate Georgian Dream for an “overwhelming victory” after one exit poll showed the government in the lead and before preliminary results had been published.

Orbán, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, arrived in Georgia on Monday evening to show his support for the government in the face of these accusations. On Tuesday, he said he did not doubt the outcome of Georgia’s contested weekend election amid allegations of fraud and vote-buying.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed that on this visit – despite Hungary holding the EU Presidency – Orbán “does not represent” the bloc on foreign affairs.

Moldova: moving closer to the EU

In the referendum held on October 20, Moldovans narrowly voted “yes” to agreeing to join the European Union. With all the votes counted, the “yes” vote won with 50.46 percent – but fears of Russian interference in the vote loomed large.

Moldova, which includes the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, is a candidate for EU membership but has traditionally been torn between the West and Russia. Moldova is a largely agricultural country which is poor by European standards. It is sandwiched between Ukraine and EU member state Romania, which is also part of NATO. 

Pro-EU President Maia Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The country was granted candidate status in June 2022 and accession talks began this June (2024). She called the referendum to give her strategy a mandate. 

The referendum was being closely watched in Brussels, but hopes have been dashed of a strong majority in favour of the EU, which pledged 1.8 billion Euro in economic aid for Moldova this month.

The EU accused Russia of “unprecedented” meddling in the votes in Moldova that were seen as among the most pivotal in the country’s post-Soviet history.

“The European Union condemns the unprecedented malign interference by Russia into Moldova’s presidential elections and constitutional referendum,” said the statement published by Borrell on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states.

Police made hundreds of arrests in recent weeks after discovering an “unprecedented” vote-buying scheme that they say could taint up to a quarter of the ballots cast. Police also said millions of dollars from Russia aiming to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country.

In addition to the suspected vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create “mass disorder” in Moldova, including by using tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.

The anti-EU campaign was allegedly organised and financed by the Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, who is loyal to Moscow and considered an influential player in Moldovan politics. In 2023, he was sentenced in absentia in his home country to 15 years in prison for money laundering and fraud and is now a fugitive and wanted man.

Moscow, in turn, said Moldovan authorities used “anti-democratic, totalitarian methods” in the election campaign, with Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accusing the West of “blatant interference in the electoral process”.

This article is published twice a week. The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr.