Sevinj Vagifgizi (Facebook)
A woman in Azerbaijan is suing a journalist for filming her appearing to commit election fraud during last year’s presidential election. [Read more…]
Azerbaijani journalist sued for ‘filming election fraud’
Opposition refuses to concede, calls for protests and snap elections
Grigol Vashadze (Facebook)
Georgian opposition presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze has called for protests in Tbilisi and snap parliamentary elections after losing Wednesday’s run-off poll to Salome Zurabishvili.
[Read more…]
Georgia’s first female president
Salome Zurabishvili
Salome Zurabishvili has been elected the 5th president of Georgia in 28 November’s presidential runoff, winning 60% of votes according to preliminary results. Her win is historic, given that she is the first woman to run and succeed in the marathon for the presidential seat. Constantly emphasising her European origins, she has promised to help Georgia integrate into NATO and the EU and as she likes to say, ‘bring Georgian society together’.
Georgian conservative groups come out against Vashadze for president
'No to Nazism' rally on Freedom Square (on.ge)
Tens of thousands of people gathered on Tbilis’s Freedom Square on Sunday in a ‘No to Nazism’ rally organised by the conservative opposition Alliance of Patriots party. [Read more…]
Georgian Government ‘printing fake ID cards’ for election fraud
President election 2018 (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Georgia’s Public Service Development Agency is printing fake ID documents in order to swing the country’s upcoming presidential election in favour Salome Zurabishvili, who has been endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, three leading transparency watchdogs have claimed. [Read more…]
PM promises to write off ₾1.5 billion in debts for 600,000 Georgians
Mamuka Bakhtadze (/OC Media)
Georgia’s Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced plans to write off ₾1.5 billion ($570 million) in unpaid loans for ‘over 600,000’ people blacklisted by Georgian banks. [Read more…]
Zurabishvili and family ‘receive death threats’ from opposition supporters
Salome Zurabishvili (centre) with her daughter Ketevan Gorjestani and son Teimuraz Gorjestani (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Georgian Dream–endorsed presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili and members of her family received SMS and audio death threats from ‘former military officers’, she announced on Monday. [Read more…]
Georgian Dream MPs warn of ‘civil war’ if Vashadze elected
Presidential candidates Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze casting their ballots (Mari Nikuradze, Facebook)
Georgia’s political scene is heating up as the country braces for a presidential run-off election. After Georgian Dream–endorsed Salome Zurabishvili failed to win a majority in the first round, members of the ruling party warned of ‘violence’ or a ‘civil war’ if the opposition’s Grigol Vashadze comes out on top. [Read more…]
Abkhazia votes in the second round of parliamentary elections
Election in Sukhumi (Apsnypress)
Residents voted for the remaining 22 members of parliament (MPs) in the second round of parliamentary elections in the de facto Republic of Abkhazia on 26 March. [Read more…]
Protests erupt in South Ossetia as ex-president is refused registration as presidential candidate
Tskhinvali (Zarina Sanakoyeva Facebook)
Supporters of the former president of the de facto Republic of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoyty, are protesting demanding the resignation of the incumbent president, Leonid Tibilov, after Kokoyty was refused registration as a presidential candidate. [Read more…]
