A partial recount of votes in Georgia’s disputed parliamentary election confirmed the ruling party won, election officials said Thursday, after opposition parties alleged violations and Washington and Brussels demanded an investigation.

Georgia plunged into political uncertainty after Saturday’s election, when the pro-Western opposition said the vote was “stolen” by the ruling Georgian Dream party and refused to recognize its results.

pro-European president Salome Zurabishvili — at odds with the ruling party — has declared the election results “illegitimate,” alleging election interference by a “Russian special operation.”

The central electoral commission told AFP that the recount in approximately 12 percent of polling stations, or 14 percent of the votes, “did not represent a significant change from the previously announced official results.”

“The final counts only changed slightly in about nine percent of the polling stations recounted,” a spokeswoman said.

tens of thousands went out to the streets on Monday to protest the alleged fraud.

The international observers, the European Union and the United States have denounced electoral irregularities and demanded a full investigation.

Georgia’s Interior Ministry said two were arrested following alleged voter fraud at a provincial polling station, while prosecutors said they had opened 47 criminal cases over alleged election violations.

On Wednesday, Georgian prosecutors said they had summoned Zurabishvili for questioning because she is “believed to possess evidence of possible forgery.”

But the president rejected the subpoena, saying there was already plenty of evidence of voter fraud available and that prosecutors should focus on their investigation and “stop settling political scores with the president.”

Opposition parties have said they will not enter the new “illegitimate” parliament and have demanded “new” elections.

Brussels had warned before the elections that it would be a crucial test for the EU candidate Tbilisithe incipient democracy and determine its possibilities of joining the bloc.

The European Commission warned in a report published on Wednesday that it could not recommend opening accession talks “unless Georgia reverses the current course of action that jeopardizes its path to the EU.”

(AFP)