Georgia announces partial vote recount amid protests

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." 

What is the election commission planning? 

With political tensions running high, the electoral officials said "district election commissions will conduct recounts of ballots from five polling stations randomly selected in each election district." 

That would make up somewhere in the region of 14% of all votes cast. 

The results showed a clear disparity between urban and rural areas, with Georgian Dream dominating in more remote areas and performing poorly in Tblisi and large cities. 

Opposition, president unconvinced by proposal

Talking to French media on Tuesday, President Salome Zourabichvili said she had little faith in the election commission's planned partial recount. 

"By itself, I expect nothing from the central electoral commission, which is completely in the hands of the party that's in power," she told RFI radio.

The Paris-born former French diplomat said she would prefer to see an outside body mobilize. 

"But one path, with the help and support of European and US partners ... would be that this would be supported by an international investigation," she said. 

She called for "very strong pressure by the interantional community on authorities to accept to really and fully review results." 

Hungary's Orban hails Georgian Dream victory after meeting with PM Kobakhidze

Meanwhile, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Tblisi on Tuesday for talks with Georgian Prime Minister Kobakhidze, hailing the vote as a success. 

Orban told local news agency Interpressnews that Hungarian observers had judged Saturday's vote as "positive, free and in every aspect democratic."

Kobakhidze (left in picture) welcomed Hungary's Orban to Tblisi on TuesdayImage: Davit Kachkachishvili/Anadolu/picture alliance

Orban  was booed by protesters in Tblisi on arrival on Monday evening with some calling him a "puppet" and a "political prostitute."

The Hungarian leader is seen as the closest remaining partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin among EU and NATO leaders.

Kobakhidze's Georgian Dream party and government is walking something of a tightrope on Georgia's ties to the EU. It professes to support the country's plans for closer integration with the EU and potentially even future membership, but it has also enacted laws that prompted the EU to suspend this process. The opposition alleges that its claim to still seek closer EU ties is disingenuous.

The Georgian prime minister said Orban's visit was doubly significant given that Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is also a sore topic in Brussels, with the EU having distanced itself from Orban's plans during the six-month period.

Sweden halts governnment level cooperation

Also on Tuesday, Sweden's foreign trade minister told the AFP news agency that the government in Stockholm had suspended government level cooperation with Georgia amdi concerns over the election. 

"The development in Georgia is very troubling," Benjamin Dousa said in a written statement to AFP, adding that the decision had been reached last week in the run-up to the vote. "The Georgian government's attempts to impede the country's civil society from fulfilling its democratic role through, among other things, restrictive legislation must have consequences." 

Dousa said Sweden was simultaneously boosting its aid to Georgian civil society organizations, which were targeted by a contentious new law demanding they register as being under foreign influence if they receive funding from abroad. Critics say the rules mirrored similar legislation introduced in Russia in 2012, which was used to stifle critical NGOs and other independent groups.

msh/dj (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)