Ex-diplomat Zurabishvili elected Georgia's first woman president

Georgia has elected ruling party candidate Salome Zurabishvili as its first woman president, final results showed on Thursday (November 29), but the opposition claimed fraud.

Not only does the bill loosen the criteria to expel migrants from the country, but it also allows for them to be stripped of Italian citizenship if convicted of terrorism.

The bill also puts an end to two-year “humanitarian protection” residency permits — a lower level of asylum status based on Italian rather than international law — that were granted to 25 percent of refugees in 2017.

Italy was one of the main destinations for refugees fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East before the new populist government took office in Rome.

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.

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."

SS