Georgian campaigners fear a “difficult path ahead” for their country after the ruling pro-Russia party of government was elected for a fourth consecutive term.
Georgian Dream, which is chaired by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won by 54 per cent on Sunday, contrary to the findings of independent exit polls.
This result was immediately disputed by the country’s united block of four pro-western opposition parties, who claimed the election was stolen.
President Salome Zourabichvili urged Georgians to rally on Monday night in Tbilisi against what she called a "total falsification, a stealing of your votes".
This election cannot be recognised, because it is the recognition of Russia’s intrusion here, Georgia’s subordination to Russia
President Salome Zourabichvili
“This election cannot be recognised, because it is the recognition of Russia’s intrusion here, Georgia’s subordination to Russia,” Ms Zourabichvili said on Sunday.
There are fears that the result will draw Georgia closer into Russia's orbit. The election comes shortly after those in Moldova, where Moldovan officials accused Russian operatives of making cash payments for votes against President Maia Sandu, who had applied for Moldova to join the EU.
“Russia is trying to reel in Georgia. It all depends on how it unravels in Ukraine,” said Shota Dighmelashvili, founder of the NGO Governance Monitoring Centre and a campaigner for EU accession in Tbilisi.
The country had experienced waves of anti-government protests this year, with four in five Georgians supporting accession to the EU. Independent polls had predicted a win for the bloc of pro-western parties.
“Everybody’s surprised with the result,” Mr Dighmelashvili told The National. “The support [for GD] is more than in prior elections. It is a sign that authoritarianism is on the rise in Georgia.”
He hoped the elected members of Georgia’s pro-western opposition would boycott the new government, but thought the chances of this happening were slim. Instead, it was up to western governments to show their support.
“A lot depends on whether the international community recognises the elections as free and fair. There was a lot of discrepancy in terms of resources,” Mr Dighmelashvili said.
The opposition accuses Georgian Dream of interfering by offering cash handouts to rural voters and pressuring others to vote.
“The victory was stolen from the Georgian people … We do not accept results of these falsified elections,” said Tinatin Bokuchava, leader of the biggest opposition party, United National Movement.
This is the party’s fourth term in power, with Mr Ivanishvili’s language becoming increasingly anti-western.
After voting in the capital yesterday, he told reporters that the opposition was composed of “foreign agents, who will carry out only the orders of a foreign country”.
The protests this year were caused by the passing of a US-style foreign agents law against western-backed NGOs and media organisations.
The weeks of rallies were often met with violence by riot police.
Human rights lawyer Agit Mirzoev said that pro-democracy activists should think cautiously about the next steps. He pointed to Belarus, where anti-government protests after a disputed election in 2020 resulted in a crackdown on the opposition.
“We have a very hard path ahead,” he told The National. “We remember how it started in Belarus. We need more hard work and more resources.”
Mr Mirzoev said Georgian Dream's increasingly hostile position to the West was likely to end discussions about joining the EU. “For many years, all our conversations were about EU and Nato integration processes. This will stop them. It is a very bad symptom,” he said.
Georgia had been placed on the EU’s accession list in December last year, but this was suspended in May after the government passed its foreign agents law.
But Mr Mirzoev also blamed the opposition parties for not unifying sooner. “You cannot form a coalition at the last moment. This is also a result of their bad work,” he said.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
How Filipinos in the UAE invest
A recent survey of 10,000 Filipino expatriates in the UAE found that 82 per cent have plans to invest, primarily in property. This is significantly higher than the 2014 poll showing only two out of 10 Filipinos planned to invest.
Fifty-five percent said they plan to invest in property, according to the poll conducted by the New Perspective Media Group, organiser of the Philippine Property and Investment Exhibition. Acquiring a franchised business or starting up a small business was preferred by 25 per cent and 15 per cent said they will invest in mutual funds. The rest said they are keen to invest in insurance (3 per cent) and gold (2 per cent).
Of the 5,500 respondents who preferred property as their primary investment, 54 per cent said they plan to make the purchase within the next year. Manila was the top location, preferred by 53 per cent.
Company Profile
Company name: Yeepeey
Started: Soft launch in November, 2020
Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani
Based: Dubai
Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alaan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Parthi%20Duraisamy%20and%20Karun%20Kurien%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%247%20million%20raised%20in%20total%20%E2%80%94%20%242.5%20million%20in%20a%20seed%20round%20and%20%244.5%20million%20in%20a%20pre-series%20A%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Ipaf in numbers
Established: 2008
Prize money: $50,000 (Dh183,650) for winners and $10,000 for those on the shortlist.
Winning novels: 13
Shortlisted novels: 66
Longlisted novels: 111
Total number of novels submitted: 1,780
Novels translated internationally: 66
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
