WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Georgian government has announced that it is postponing talks on accession to the European Union until the end of 2028 after the European Parliament rejected the results of the country's recent controversial parliamentary elections.
Georgia's pro-Russian ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in the elections held to the parliament in October, but opposition lawmakers are boycotting the new 150-member supreme national legislature, alleging fraud.
The country's President Salome Zurabishvili declared the results 'unconstitutional', calling them as rigged.
The European Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution rejecting the elections and calling for them to be re-run within a year, 'with the process conducted in an improved electoral environment by an independent and impartial election administration'.
It called for an independent international investigation into the allegations of extensive electoral manipulation.
Close on the heels of it, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said, 'We have decided not to put the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028. Also, we refuse any budgetary grant from the European Union until the end of 2028.'
Kobakhidze's announcement evoked nationwide protests. Police clashed with thousands of protesters who gathered outside the parliament building in capital Tbilisi on Friday, blocking traffic and waving EU flags.
The European Union granted candidate status to Georgia in December 2023. It is one of nine current EU candidate countries, together with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Opinion polls show that a huge majority of the people in the South Caucasus country support EU membership.
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