NEWS DESK | Georgia has elected ruling party candidate Salome Zurabishvili as its first woman president. Her campaign manager Sefi Shaked discusses with host Ayman Sikseck.
Story:
Georgia has elected ruling party candidate Salome Zurabishvili as its first woman president, final results showed Thursday, but the opposition claimed fraud.
With all votes counted, the French-born ex-diplomat had taken 59.52 percent of the vote in Wednesday's second round run-off, the election commission said.
Her rival Grigol Vashadze, from an alliance of 11 opposition parties led by exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement, won 40.48 percent.
The election was seen as a test of Georgia's democratic credentials as the Caucasus nation seeks European Union and NATO membership.
It was also a trial run for more important parliamentary elections in 2020, when the ruling Georgian Dream party is set to face off against a range of opposition parties.Georgian Dream — the creation of billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili who many see as the country's de facto ruler — backed Zurabishvili in the presidential vote.
Zurabishvili's Campaign Manager Sefi Shaked spoke to i24NEWS after the projected victory Wednesday evening. Shaked dismissed allegations from critics that Salome was close with Russian President Vladmir Putin as 'fake news.'
'Another example of fake news,' Shaked remarked when asked about the Russian connection. '[Zurabishvili] was born in France, her ancestors escaped Georgia because of the Russians and she is completely Western. It is simply not true.'
The campaign chief emphasized that, in office, Zurabishvili would work towards strengthening Georgia's relationship with the European Union.
'The main expectation she is going to fulfill is to strengthen the connection with the EU and to work with her very large network in the EU to get Georgia closer and closer,' Shaked told i24NEWS.
Ivanishvili's great rival, the flamboyant ex-president Saakashvili, claimed 'mass electoral fraud' even before official results were released.
'The oligarch has stamped out Georgian democracy and the institutions of elections,' he said on the pro-opposition Rustavi-2 television channel, referring to Ivanishvili. 'I urge Georgians to defend our freedom, democracy and the law. I call on you to start mass peaceful rallies and demand snap parliamentary polls.'
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