Moldova summons Georgian representative over PM’s criticism of elections

Moldova’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Georgia’s chargé d’affaires over statements made by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze in which he criticised the presidential elections in Moldova.

The Moldovan Foreign Ministry announced it had summoned Davit Bochorishvili on Tuesday.

They informed him of Moldova’s ‘deep dissatisfaction […] with regard to the distorted and inconsistent manner in which the Georgian Prime Minister addresses the European integration of the Republic of Moldova and the electoral process in our country in his public speech’.

They added that the cooperation and friendship between Moldova and Georgia, ‘as well as the objectives that each of our states have in the process of European integration must prevail’.

On Monday, Kobakhidze criticised calls for investigations into voter fraud in Georgia’s parliamentary elections, claiming that they were held peacefully and legally, unlike in Moldova and the US.

‘If there is an election to be investigated, for example, it is in Moldova, and as you can see, no investigation is conducted in Moldova, despite the fact that there were quite gross flaws in the election process’, he said, adding that there were also violations of voter secrecy in the US presidential elections. 

‘If there is anything to be investigated, we should start with other countries’, said Kobakhidze.

Kobakhidze was commenting on the presidential elections in Moldova which saw the re-election of the country’s pro-Western leader, Maia Sandu, and the recent EU membership referendum, in which 50.35% of voters voted in favour of constitutional amendments supporting Moldova’s accession to the EU.

He had previously on 7 November criticised the elections and referendum in Moldova, claiming that voter secrecy was violated there.

‘You saw the elections in Moldova, for example, how they were held […] the boxes were transparent and ballots were thrown into these boxes without envelopes. Not if it was violated in individual cases, there was no vote secrecy in Moldova at all. Do you remember anyone’s statement regarding this?’ he claimed. 

He also incorrectly claimed that only 45% of Moldovan voters supported integration into the EU, and suggested that the West held Moldova to a different standard, despite being similar to Georgia.

‘Only 45% of the population of Moldova supports integration into the European Union, it is a member of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], it has not imposed sanctions [against Russia], just like us, and at this time there is a different attitude towards Moldova and Georgia […] it is a clear injustice’, he said.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Georgia has yet to comment.