World

Georgian Dream's Win is Undisputable and Mass Protests in Tbilisi are Unlikely - Analyst

Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili is the only political leader who managed to unite people of different stripes in the country, Arno Khidirbegishvili, general director and chief editor of the Georgian Information and Analytical Agency Geoinform, tells Sputnik.
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According to the pundit, Ivanishvili and the Georgian Dream chose a middle path of avoiding confrontation with Russia and maintaining ties with the West and have visibly improved the socio-economic situation in the country which laid the groundwork for the ruling party's election victory.
Regardless of the opposition's threats not to recognize the election outcome, there won't be a new color revolution, Khidirbegishvili believes: there are no reckless revolutionaries among Georgian opposition figures.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has gained 90 of 150 seats in the country's legislature, while the nation's four opposition parties together received just 37% of votes.
According to Khidirbegishvili, that means that roughly 750,000 Georgians align themselves with the West and its Russophobic, LGBT* and homosexual propaganda, as well as its neglect of Christian Orthodox values and desire to open a "second front" against Russia.
"It will always be a time bomb and they will always be a destructive element," he warns.
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The analyst draws attention to the fact that it's relatively calm in Tbilisi even though it was earlier expected that the entire Shota Rustaveli Avenue would be blocked by protesters after the election.
"So everything will continue as it was before," he assumes.
Former leader of the 2003 Rose Revolution Mikheil Saakashvili and incumbent President Salome Zourabichvili, who advocated sanctions against the Georgian Dream, are nothing but a "spent force", according to the pundit.
"Saakashvili is unhappy that he remains in prison… Everyone is tired of him," the pundit says, adding that Zourabichvili has likewise outlived her usefulness for the Western-backed opposition.
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Meanwhile, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili refused to recognize the outcome of the parliamentary elections that took place in the country on October 26, calling for protests.
"I do not recognize these elections," Zourabichvili told a briefing.
She also claimed the elections were falsified.
"I would like to call you tomorrow to Rustaveli Avenue at 7 p.m. [15:00 GMT] so that we can all say together that we do not recognize these elections," Zourabichvili added.
The Georgian president also thanked those who had "voted for the European future of our country."
*banned for extremism in Russia
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