Georgian president wants international probe into election results

PARIS (Reuters) - Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili called on Tuesday for international pressure to force a review of parliamentary elections she said were rigged.

Official results said the governing Georgian Dream party won nearly 54% of the vote, but Zourabichvili and pro-Western opposition parties have rejected this. Thousands of people protested on Monday night in the capital Tbilisi.

"This election was stolen," Zourabichvili told RFI radio.

Asked about plans for a partial vote recount by the central electoral commission, Zourabichvili was sceptical.

"By itself, I expect nothing from the central electoral commission, which is completely in the hands of the party that's in power," Zourabichvili, a trenchant critic of the Georgian Dream party, told RFI radio.

"But one path, with the help and support of European and U.S. partners ... would be that this would be supported by an international investigation," said Zourabichvili, a Paris-born former French diplomat.

She called for "very strong pressure by the international community on authorities to accept to really and fully review results," calling it the best possible outcome for the country. Another option, she said, would be repeat elections.

(Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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