Georgia announces partial vote recount amid protests - eviltoast

Georgia’s election commission plans to recount votes from randomly selected polling stations after the opposition said the recent election was “stolen.” But the country’s president called for an international probe.

The national election commission in Georgia on Tuesday said it would recount a small share of the votes cast in Saturday’s disputed parliamentary elections.

Protesters angered by the results took to the streets of Tbilisi on Monday and another demonstration was planned for Tuesday evening.

Nearly complete results from the election commission, which had previously described the vote as free and fair, point to a rather comfortable win for the ruling Georgian Dream party, with just under 54% of the votes.

The count also puts the union of four different opposition alliances at under 38%. Opposition parties and President Salome Zourabichvili, a staunch critic of Prime Minsiter Irakli Kobakhidze’s government, have said the vote was rigged.

Georgian election monitors had also submitted complaints to the commission, saying they had uncovered evidence of “large-scale election fraud.”