Page 21 - bne_newspaper_November_30_2018

Eurasia
November 30, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Ruling party endorsed Zurabishvili wins Georgian presidency
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest and Will Conroy in Prague
Ex-Georgian foreign minister Salome Zurabishvili won the presidential runoff ballot in Georgia on November 28, according to final preliminary re- sults issued after the counting of more than 99% of the votes.
The 66-year-old French-born diplomat will be- come the country’s first woman president. She stood as an independent candidate but was en- dorsed by the South Caucasian nation’s ruling Georgian Dream party — led by billionaire oligarch and former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili — which provid- ed her with very substantial support that grew far more intense after she only very narrowly carried the election’s first round at the end of October.
According to the country’s Central Electoral Com- mittee (CEC), Zurabishvili received 59.6% of votes, giving her a wide margin of around 20pp over her opponent Grigol Vashadze, a fellow ex-foreign minister and the candidate of the United Opposi- tion led by the centre-right United National Move- ment (UNM). The turnout was 56.2%, nearly 10pp more than in the first round vote.
Though the powers of the presidency have been cut under the new Georgian constitution, the in- coming president is still expected to play a critical role in addressing widespread suspicions of the prevalence of corruption in Georgia’s judiciary.
Despite being very much regarded as the candidate of Georgian Dream — seen as Big Tent but self-
Some Georgian voters afraid of renewed military clashes with Russia may have switched to Zurabishvili who has said relations should be balanced between the West and Moscow.
described as centre-left — Zurabishvili's future line as president remains largely unpredictable.
One interesting aspect of the last few days of cam- paigning prior to election day was the impact on Georgian voters of the Sea of Azov naval clash be- tween Russia and Ukraine over Moscow’s tightening blockade of the Kerch straits in the Crimea region. Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 and some Georgians may have become wary of voting for Vashadze, the more pro-Western of the two candi- dates. Zurabishvili has called for Georgia’s relations with the West and Moscow to be balanced.
Russia has troops stationed in the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhaz- ia, keeping many Georgians on edge over possible renewed hostilities.
In principle, the victory of Zurabishvili, born in Paris after her parents fled Georgia after its an- nexation by Soviet forces, should prevent major disruption to the direction taken by the country’s government, despite a call for public disobedience made soon after the polling stations closed from the man widely regarded as the informal leader
of the opposition — self-exiled former president Mikhael Saakashvili, who claimed “mass electoral fraud” in an address on pro-opposition television channel Rustavi-2.
"I urge Georgians to defend our freedom, de- mocracy, and the law. I call on you to start mass