The Cypriot government is in full agreement with the statement issued by the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell regarding Sunday’s elections in Georgia, foreign ministry’s spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Gotsis said Borrell “speaks for the EU’s 27 member states, and we agree wholeheartedly with his statement”.
Borrell had said on Sunday night that despite the result claimed by the Georgian government that ostensibly pro-Russia party Georgian Dream had won the election in a landslide, “the people of Georgia have demonstrated their attachment to democratic values and their country’s EU path.”
He had said the day of the election was “generally procedurally well-organised and administered in an orderly manner but marked by a tense environment, with frequent compromises in vote secrecy and several procedural inconsistencies, as well as reports of intimidation and pressure on voters that negatively impacted public trust in the process.”
“Reports of pressure on voters, particularly on public sector employees, remained widespread in the campaign. This, coupled with extensive tracking of voters on election day, raised concerns about the ability of some voters to cast their vote without fear of retribution,” he added.
He also said election observers present on Sunday had reported “an uneven playing field, a divisive campaign in polarised atmosphere and significant concerns over the impact of recent legislative amendments on this election process.”
As such, he called on Georgia’s central election commission and other relevant authorities to “fulfil their duty to swiftly, transparently and independently investigate and adjudicate electoral irregularities and allegations thereof.”
Borrell’s statement had been added to by a group of ministers from 13 EU member states, who declared, “we are deeply concerned about the current situation in Georgia.”
However, concern regarding the questionable validity of Georgia’s elections was not shared to the same extent by Cypriot MEP and social media influencer Fidias Panayiotou, who was one of the seven observers sent by the European Parliament to Georgia on Sunday.
He said in a video on social media platform Tiktok that “even though I saw some incidents that I didn’t like, overall, the day went smoothly.”
However, his name did appear on the declaration issued by the head of the delegation, Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White, a Spanish MEP who belongs to the People’s Party, which is in the EPP, the same European grouping as Disy.
Lopez-Isturiz said that “during the electoral campaign, the ruling party used anti-Western and hostile rhetoric, targeting Georgia’s democratic partners, in particular the European Union, its politicians and diplomats, promoted Russian disinformation, manipulation and conspiracy theories.”
He also said he had borne witness to “ballot box stuffing, physical assaults on observers attempting to report on violations, observer and media removal from polling stations, tearing up of observer complaints, intimidation of voters inside and outside of polling stations,” and other similar violations.
