Salome Zurabishvili Wins Georgia Presidential Runoff

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TBILISI, Georgia — Salome Zurabishvili, the French-born former foreign minister of Georgia, claimed victory in a presidential runoff Wednesday that marked the final popular vote in the country for the head of state.

With nearly all of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said that Ms. Zurabishvili, 66, who was backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, had won more than 59 percent of the vote in the race against Grigol Vashadze, 60, who was supported by a coalition of opposition forces.

Georgia, a nation of nearly 4 million people in the volatile Caucasus region south of Russia, is transitioning to a parliamentary republic that substantially reduces the authority of the president and elevates the prime minister to the most powerful figure in the country.

Once the term ends for Ms. Zurabishvili, the first woman to be elected president of Georgia, heads of state in the country will be chosen by delegates.

“Our choice is peaceful Georgia, united country and of equal citizens,” Mr. Zurabishvili said after seeing an exit poll that showed her heading for victory. “Our choice is the dialogue with those parts of the society who today have not voted for me and who today don’t agree with us. But we all are citizens of one country.”

The election was seen as a crucial test for Georgian Dream. The party is led and funded by the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia.

Georgian Dream has dominated the nation’s political scene since defeating former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement in 2012. Mr. Ivanishvili briefly served as prime minister in 2012-2013 and has remained a prominent force in Georgian politics ever since.

After the polls closed, Mr. Saakashvili spoke on Rustavi 2 television, claiming that the vote was rigged and calling for protests to annul the results.

Ms. Zurabishvili ran as an independent but was backed by Georgian Dream and captured 39 percent of the vote in the first round last month, a narrow victory over Mr. Vashadze, who was supported by a coalition that includes the United National Movement and won 38 percent.

Ms. Zurabishvili was born in France and served as French ambassador to Georgia until she became the country’s foreign minister in 2004, but she was fired the following year. Some Georgians have never fully accepted her because she was born in France, and others remain angry after she contended that Georgia was responsible for starting a war in 2008 with Russia.

Ms. Zurabishvili’s opponents cast her as a pro-Russia candidate, a claim she and Georgian Dream strongly denied. Ms. Zurabishvili argued that her background made her strongly qualified to serve as president as Georgia seeks closer ties with the European Union.

“Diplomatic work in France for me was also work for Georgia,” Ms. Zurabishvili said. “Everyone knew that I am a Georgian who fights for its country. I knew very well the price of independence and freedom, because I am the child of the country whose ancestors have sacrificed themselves for the independence and freedom.”

Mr. Vashadze, who served as Georgia’s foreign minister from 2008 to 2012, vowed to re-establish control over the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by peaceful means. Georgia lost control of both provinces after the war with Russia, which erupted when Mr. Saakashvili made a failed attempt to reclaim sovereignty over South Ossetia.

“Georgia has outlived many empires and will definitely outlive the current Russian empire,” Mr. Vashadze said.

He also vowed to pardon Mr. Saakashvili, who was stripped of his citizenship in 2015 and sentenced in absentia for abuse of power.

Earlier this month, the Georgian government announced that a charitable foundation controlled by Ms. Ivanishvili promised to write off the debts of 600,000 people, a move described by critics as an attempt to buy votes before the runoff.



Source : Nytimes