The ruling party in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is claiming victory following Saturday’s closely contested parliamentary election.  But the opposition alleges the vote was rigged and staged a rally outside parliament on Sunday in protest.Preliminary results show the ruling Georgian Dream, or GD, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, garnered about 48% of the vote, according to election officials.The opposition United National Movement, or UNM, of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, was second with 27%. Trailing with roughly 4% was European Georgia, a party that split from the UNM in 2017. Altogether, there are eight opposition parties, including pro-Russia Patriot’s Alliance, which is perceived as an ally to the Georgian Dream.  The ruling party declared victory soon after initial projections were announced. It said the elections were a step forward and that it will single-handedly form a government.  “This is a big win,” said Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgian Dream’s executive secretary. “Free and fair elections are main achievement of Georgian Dream,” he told reporters at a press conference.
 
With the final votes still being counted, the opposition is discussing the possibility of boycotting parliament. They have argued that Ivanishvili has undermined Georgian democracy through shadow governance, control over the judiciary and pressuring the business sector.   The opposition leaders have pledged unity, maintaining that they won’t recognize Saturday’s elections.   “Ivanishvili destroyed democracy in our country last night,” said UNM member Salome Samadashvili ahead of announcing an opposition rally. “We demand new and legitimate elections,” she added.   “The results that were established through fear tactics, violence, bribery, use of administrative resources, manipulations at voting stations, do not reflect the will of the people,” said Giga Bokeria, leader of European Georgia.Ruling Party in Ex-Soviet Georgia Leads in Parliament Vote; Opposition ProtestsThe opposition said preliminary results did not correspond with realityObservers from the OSCE — the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — have said the vote was competitive and that overall, fundamental freedoms were respected. The OSCE, however, said allegations of pressure on voters and blurring of the line between party and state reduced public confidence in parts of the process.  Georgian Dream says the OSCE assessment proves that the elections reflected the popular choice. “The assessment is much more positive than in the case of previous elections,” said Archil Talakvadze, the chairman of parliament.  A statement from the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi echoed the assessment of the OSCE, while calling for transparency in resolving the complaints.“These efforts to corrupt the electoral process through voter intimidation, vote buying, interfering with ballot secrecy, blurring of party and official activities, and violence against election observers and journalists, while not sufficient to invalidate the results, continue to mar Georgia’s electoral process and are unacceptable,” the statement said.Elections in the nation of nearly 4 million people were held with a hard-won, new electoral system, a concession the ruling party made after a series of demonstrations last year and continued pressure from the U.S. government and Congress. Of the legislature’s 150 seats, 120 are decided by a proportional system. The remaining seats would be decided through what are called single-mandate. There will be run-offs in 16 out of 30 districts.  The elections also took place amid the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, a struggling economy and increased poverty. Observers note the national currency, the lari, has lost half of its value against the U.S dollar and unemployment remains the main concern of the population.  The pandemic has hit Georgia hard with its economy expected to shrink by 4% this year. Coronavirus cases are sharply rising, straining the health care sector. According to the Johns Hopkins University, the former Soviet republic has close to 39,000 confirmed cases and 307 deaths. The government took steps to curb the outbreak by declaring a state of emergency earlier this year, closing schools and some businesses and restricting travel.The election followed a highly polarized campaign in which Georgian Dream and the United National Movement traded personal attacks.  Georgian Dream’s chief tactic was to target Saakashvili, who served as president from 2004 through 2013. Saakashvili left the country after a series of criminal charges against him, which he argues are politically motivated. He currently resides in Ukraine and holds an official position in the government.  “If the opposition decides that I should come, I will jump on the next plane,” he said after the election results were announced.Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, came to power in 2012, ousting President Saakashvili’s government. He served as a prime minister for a year, before abruptly resigning. He is widely believed to run the government behind the scenes.  Over the years, Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream has come under harsh criticism from local and international observers, who have voiced concerns over targeting of media freedoms, and political opponents and the use of excessive force during anti-Russia protests last summer.
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Security forces in the Belarusian capital have fired warning shots and begun detaining participants on Sunday in the latest anti-government protest fueled by a disputed presidential election 12 weeks ago. Thousands of demonstrators were taking part in parallel Minsk marches on November 1 as part of almost daily protests and ongoing demands for Alyaksandr Lukashenko’s resignation and a new vote. Columns of security trucks and buses to hold detainees could be seen around the city as the columns marched toward a well-known monument to Soviet-era repression victims outside the capital. But soon, law enforcement were targeting groups of protesters with flash-bang grenades, warning shots fired into the air, and with tear gas and batons while trying to disperse the crowds. Belarusian law enforcement officers block opposition supporters during their rally to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 1, 2020.Some motorists appeared to be trying to block the movement of vehicles intended to carry off detainees. One day earlier, police arrested dozens as hundreds of women marched through Minsk to keep the pressure on Lukashenko, who has orchestrated a massive crackdown and arrested thousands since authorities declared him the winner of an August 9 election to give him a sixth consecutive term. FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 21, 2020.Most of the country’s opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, including presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has said the vote was rigged in Lukashenk’s favor and considers herself the rightful winner. She left Belarus for Lithuania after the vote amid threats to her and her family. Tsikhanouskaya has urged a “national strike” since October 26 that has been met with security sweeps and more brutal moves against dissenters. The opposition had set a deadline of midnight on October 25 for Lukashenko — who has been president for 26 years — to leave. Lukashenko responded with another show of power, and later met with his new security chiefs on October 30 and threatened “harsh measures” against protesters. The Vyashna rights organization said about 40 people were detained in Minsk, Hrodna, and other Belarusian cities on October 31. The November 1 rallies coincide with an annual march that commemorates victims of Soviet-era killings with victims buried at Kurapaty, on the outskirts of Minsk. Cell phone coverage was said to be cut off in many areas as estimates suggested dual marches had attracted tens of thousands of people. Belarus partially closed all its land borders to foreigners overnight on October 31-November 1 in a move that prompted speculation the restrictions are politically motivated. The country’s State Border Committee said the border restrictions were to “prevent the spread of infection caused by COVID-19.” FILE – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a meeting with the country’s political activists in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 16, 2020.Lukashenko has repeatedly accused the opposition and critics of being foreign-backed puppets. He has bolstered forces at Belarus’s western borders, and accused Poland and the Baltic states of trying to destabilize Belarus. Belarus has also expelled or turned away many foreign correspondents, in addition to jailing some journalists. Lukashenko has repeatedly turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has sometimes clashed over the implementation of a two-decade-old agreement on a joint state, for support since the latest unrest began.  
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Moldovans started to vote in a presidential election Sunday in which the pro-Russian incumbent Igor Dodon is bidding for a second term against former prime minister Maia Sandu, who wants to pull the country closer to the European Union.The election in the nation of 3.5 million, where the West and Russia vie for influence, takes place in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic that has pushed one of Europe’s poorest countries into a sharp economic downturn.Dodon took power in 2016 after pro-Western political forces became mired in scandals. He has led opinion polls against seven other candidates going into Sunday’s vote but may not win outright, which would lead to a run-off.Sandu, a Harvard-educated former World Bank economist known for her tough stance on corruption, led a short-lived coalition government last year that was brought down by a no-confidence vote within months.If elected, she has promised to secure more financial support from Brussels, while Dodon has pledged to roll out a settlement next year for the breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transdniestria.The EU in 2014 forged a deal on closer trade and political ties with the ex-Soviet republic, which is squeezed between EU member Romania and Ukraine, but became increasingly critical of Chisinau’s track record on reforms.Sandu has received messages of support from German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former European Council President Donald Tusk.A group of Dodon’s supporters denounced such support as an attempt to destabilize the country. Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service, last week accused the United States of plotting to instigate mass protests against Dodon as punishment for him fostering good relations with Moscow.Naryshkin similarly accused Washington of fomenting revolution in Belarus, where the Moscow-backed President Alexander Lukashenko has battled months of protests following a contested election.
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At least 39 people have been killed and nearly 900 injured by the earthquake that toppled buildings in the Turkish city of İzmir and created sea surges on at least two Greek islands.Rescue teams in Turkey early Sunday morning pulled a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed building. The man, identified as Ahmet Citim, survived for 33 hours under the debris of a residential building that was flattened during the earthquake.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Izmir on Saturday evening and promised the government would help victims who lost their homes with temporary housing and rent, and start construction of new buildings.The deadly 7.0 earthquake originated from a 250-kilometer fault line off the coast of the Greek island of Samos, streaming across the Aegean Sea that divides Turkey and Greece. Hundreds of aftershocks followed.Just hours after the quake, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed a rare telephone call to Turkish president to offer his condolences.“Whatever our differences, these are times when people need to stand together,” Mitsotakis posted on Twitter.Erdogan replied in a twin tweet: “That two neighbors show solidarity and support in difficult times is more valuable than many things in life.”The United States has saluted the Greek-Turkish earthquake diplomacy and expressed readiness to help the two NATO countries.”It’s great to see both countries putting their differences aside to help each other during a time of need. The United States also stands ready to assist,” said U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien.France also offered assistance to the countries, extending “full solidarity to both Greece and Turkey.”Although Greece and Turkey are both members of NATO, there are perhaps no two allied, neighboring nations whose dealings have been marked with so much conflict and mistrust. Most recently, both sides have been embroiled in a heated energy standoff in the eastern Mediterranean, bringing them to the brink of war during the summer.The European Union and the United States have been working for months in hope of sitting both sides down to negotiate their differences, but to no avail.It remains unclear whether the deadly earthquake can strengthen ties. 
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