Georgian Justice Minister slams President’s “unfounded” claims of “rigged elections”

Georgia’s Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Monday called President Salome Zourabichvili’s claims that the Government had “totally rigged” Saturday’s parliamentary elections as “absolutely groundless” and “unfounded”. 

Responding to the President’s meeting with opposition groups on Sunday at her office, where she announced a rally to protest the published election results in Tbilisi on Monday, the official accused Zourabichvili of violating the country’s Constitution and making “unfounded claims” over the election integrity. 

The President who violates the Constitution based only on her own perceptions and impressions, without evidence, calls the elections totally rigged”, Bregadze said in his social media post. 

The Minister further said Zourabichvili was making the claims without evidence, “based only on her perceptions and impressions”, adding “most likely,  [the opposition’s] answer to this question [on how the elections were rigged] will be the legendary 'because’", he quipped.

Bregadze also lamented the “current state” of Zourabichvili’s actions, claiming “it is a pity that the fifth President is completing her term of office in such a way that, instead of protecting the state interests and the Constitution, she is only serving as the founder of a ‘perceptual democracy’”.