Wanted: A Do-Over

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Georgia launched a partial vote recount Tuesday, just days after the country’s president and the opposition called for mass protests and the annulment of the election after results showed the ruling Georgian Dream party winning Saturday’s parliamentary polls, France 24 reported.

Georgian Dream won nearly 54 percent of the vote, according to Georgian election officials. However, pro-Western opposition parties rejected the outcome, calling it “illegitimate” and alleging Russian interference.

A group of Georgia’s leading election monitors said they had uncovered evidence of complex, large-scale fraud and demanded an annulment of at least 15 percent of the votes cast.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a former Georgian Dream ally who became a member of the opposition, called on Sunday for people to take to the streets to protest the results, saying the vote was a “Russian special operation,” Reuters reported.

Zourabichvili appealed to the international community, adding that the results “do not correspond to the will of the Georgian people.”

The opposition has accused Georgian Dream of trying to steer the Caucasus country away from its goal of joining the European Union, a goal supported by a majority of Georgians, who viewed the election as a make-or-break referendum on the matter, reported Reuters separately.

On Monday, tens of thousands of Georgians wielding EU and Georgian flags protested outside the Georgian parliament in the capital Tbilisi, according to BBC news.

Following the demonstrations, the District Election Commission (DEC) announced it would hold a partial vote recount and “conduct recounts of ballots from five polling stations randomly selected in each election district.”

However, the opposition and the protesters have called for “fresh” elections run by an “international election administration.”

The EU, NATO and the United States have all called for a full investigation into the alleged electoral fraud.

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