A joint statement from EU ministers was released Monday condemning the Georgian election for violations of international standards. In light of Georgia’s attempt to join the EU, the statement prefaces that the electoral violations are ‘incompatible’ with EU standards, and, as such, this will cause severe detriment to their aims of joining the EU. The International Election Observation Mission noted that Georgia’s induction into the EU has been “de facto halted by the EU since June 2024, due to democratic backsliding.” The Presidency of the European Commission built on the the statements made by the ministers, stating on X that the Georgian people have a “right to see that irregularities are investigated swiftly, transparently, independently.”

After Georgia’s recent election, the Georgian Dream party was declared victorious. Among issues with the declared victory was the fact that polling identified the opposition as significantly ahead.  The OSCE charged that irregularities were widespread, including “extensive tracking of voters on election day, which raised concerns about the ability of some voters to cast their vote without fear of retribution.” Issues also extended int media coverage before the election, which was so favorable to the Georgian Dream Party that it barely reported on other parties. The result was an inability of citizens to be properly informed of their political options. The OSCE also noted that this was the first election to use electronic voting. The devices were subject to audits, though “key stakeholders, such as political parties and citizen observers, were not provided access to the audit processes and had limited access to the related documentation, limiting transparency, which is at odds with international good practice.”

The Georgian president, Salome Zourabichvili,  conducted a public interview in which she asserted that the opposition “pro-European forces won the election,” but that it was “stolen.” She explicitly stated that the electronic voting devices were rigged to produce votes in favor of the Georgian Dream party. She further stated that she was convinced that the election tampering was conducted under Moscow’s guidance, and that the Georgian Dream’s political propaganda was a “copy of Russian propaganda.”