LI ALDE joint statement on Georgian parliamentary elections

The parliamentary elections that took place in Georgia over the weekend have left a heavy cloud of uncertainty and fear hanging over the country. We, ALDE Party President Svenja Hahn and Liberal International President Hakima El Haite, issue the following joint statement:

In an environment marked by intimidation and underlined by irregularities, as the preliminary reports of at least five international observation missions agree, it is our belief that the outcome of the elections does not fully reflect the free choice of the Georgian people.

We are alarmed at the large number of documented violations during the pre-election period and during the election day on 26 October. According to the observation missions, the pre-election period was heavily characterised by voter intimidation and pressure, vote buying, confiscation of identification documents, and the government’s use of disproportionally large state administrative resources to their advantage.

We stand in solidarity with the united opposition parties and the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, in condemning the conduct of these crucial elections that will define the country’s future relationship with the European Union.

We reject the result based on violence, intimidation, and a deliberate shrinking democratic space by the Georgian Dream and recognise the wish of the majority of Georgians to follow a Euro-Atlantic path and reject the creeping influence of Russia in their country.

Georgian citizens want a future centred on a clear path towards EU membership and free from Russian influence and fully respecting democratic values – in this pursuit they will always have the support of Liberal International and the ALDE Party.

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