Thousands of people rallied in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on November 11 to demand fresh elections amid allegations that Russia helped the ruling party, Georgian Dream, to rig the October 26 vote.
A delegation of EU lawmakers, who had earlier met Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, attended the rally in which protesters held up signs that read "We are Europe" and "Georgia votes for the EU."
Zurabishvili said after meeting the visiting EU delegation that the Russian-friendly Georgian Dream party had "virtually captured" all institutions and called for new elections to put the Caucasus country back on track toward Euro-Atlantic integration.
Zurabishvili spoke at a news conference in Tbilisi on November 11 after a meeting with the delegation of EU lawmakers following the disputed elections last month that Georgian Dream claimed to have won with some 54 percent of the vote amid allegations of widespread fraud and Russian influence.
SEE ALSO: Georgia's Opposition Criticized For Sluggish Reaction To Flawed ElectionGeorgians have held several protests since the October 26 elections against the results and have called for a repeat of the vote as protracted deliberations at Georgia's Appeals Court failed to validate documented complaints by the opposition about violations of electoral confidentiality and violent incidents.
"We are entering a crisis," Zurabishvili, who has refused to recognize the election results, told journalists.
"There can be no surprises here, the crisis is obvious," Zurabishvili said, adding that the country needed "new elections so that Georgia can get a legitimate parliament, a legitimate government, and a legitimate new president when the time comes."
The EU delegation was formed from heads of the foreign relations committees from the parliaments of Germany, Finland, Sweden, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland.
Addressing the crowd of protesters outside the Georgian parliament on November 11, Michael Roth, chairman of the German parliament's foreign relations committee, urged the protesters to "not give up" and declared, "You have a place in Europe... we are with you."
Georgia last year obtained the coveted status of EU candidate country but backsliding on democracy and rule of law by Georgian Dream, which included pushing through a Russian-style "foreign agents" law and anti-LGBT measures, have prompted Brussels to warn that the country's path toward integration was in danger.
European Commission President Charles Michel on November 8 said that "there are serious suspicions of fraud, which require a serious investigation" after the October 26 vote.
Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of the Georgian Dream-controlled parliament, refused to meet with the EU delegation on November 11, claiming on social media that the reason for his refusal was "the unfriendly attitude towards the Georgian government and the Georgian society that has been shown many times" by the visiting delegation's governments.
Several members of the EU delegation criticized Papuashvili's refusal to meet with them.
Lithuania's Zigimantas Pavillionis said Georgian Dream had "failed" the test on democracy, while French lawmaker Frederic Petit called Papuashvili's refusal "unexpected" and Germany's Michael Roth said it was "regrettable."