let me tell you a story from 1787 the United States was finalizing its Constitution one of the key players in this process was Benjamin Franklin as he exited the Constitutional Convention he was surrounded by curious citizens they asked him what form of government are we getting Franklin replied it's a republic if you can keep it and that last part is very important it's also integral to our next Story the heartbeat of any Democratic Republic is elections everyone gets a vote someone wins someone loses and the winner goes on to form a government this process is
the Bedrock of any Democratic Republic but that same process has led to violence and confusion in two countries Romania and Georgia let's look at Georgia first its capital to BC was rocked by violence today hundreds of people hid the streets in protest they were opposing a recent decision by the ruling party you see Georgia is an aspiring European Union member it's actually written in their constitution but the ruling party has decided to delay it they have postponed the EU accession talks to 2028 look at what happened next right police were deployed water cannons and pepper
sprays were used and dozens of protesters were arrested but how was it related to elections well Georgia held its parliamentary vote last month the ruling party ended up winning again that's the Georgian Dream party they've been ruling the country since 2012 but not everyone is convinced there are reports of voter harassment and manipulation so the European Union stepped in their Parliament the European Parliament passed a resolution yesterday it declared that this election in Georgia was not free or Fair it also called for a rerun basically they want fresh elections in Georgia of course this riled
up the ruling party which is why they have delayed EU talks to 2028 now this goes beyond domestic ideologies this is a strategic tussle Georgia's ruling party is pro Russia and these protesters are proe so the election and its Fallout is a battle for Georgia's future its identity as a country now let's turn to Romania similar protests were seen in their Capital bukarest hundreds of people flooded the streets they were protesting against a far right presidential candidate take a look [Applause] [Applause] now some background here Romania voted on Sunday and the results surprised most people
a far right and pro Russia candidate emerged as number one his name is khen Jesco he won 23% of the vote and why did that surprise people for starters he did not even have a political party he contested as an independent plus the opinion polls did not give him a chance yet on Sunday he was the big winner immediately people started blaming Tik Tok because that's where Geor ESU did most of his campaigning Tik Tok is accused of amplifying his presidential bid Reports say fake accounts promoted his his campaign on the platform and there is
no evidence at this point but Romania's top court has now stepped in they have ordered a recount of Sunday's election it's Romania's first recount since the Cold War again the European Union is involved they want tick Tok CEO to appear before their Parliament the EU Parliament they want him to explain what happened here of course Russia is also a suspect most western weapons enter Ukraine via Romania so the West is Keen on a pro- Ukraine regime in Bucharest but like we said georgescu is pro Russia Moscow has rubbished the claims of interference the Russian side
did not interfere in the Electoral processes in Romania we do not generally have a habit of interfering in elections in other countries in particular in Romania and we do not intend to do so now two countries two elections two controversies for the sake of symmetry I'll make two points number one some of these issues are genuine Tik Tok has been accused of meddling in elections before it is on brand for them similarly ruling parties have also been courau rigging elections before none of this is far-fetched that's point number one point number two there is some
willful ignorance at play here a cherry picking of which election to recognize and which to rubbish think back to what happened in Pakistan we had videos of fake ballot papers being dumped at counting centers yet the same European Union did not call for reelection yes Pakistan is not Romania or Georgia but shouldn't the same principles apply you can't conveniently question results when a pro- Russian candidate WI wins or when your side unexpectedly loses and this applies to countries all over the world if you have doubts trust your own systems to handle them to sort out
any discrepancies do not undermine the foundation of your Republic
