Our live coverage of the aftermath of the Georgian parliamentary elections continues, as three major opposition groups vow to announce plans at a rally on Monday.

We’re ending our live updates for the night; join us again tomorrow as we continue our coverage of the aftermath of Georgia’s parliamentary elections. 

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Opposition leaders meet with foreign diplomats

According to local media, the leaders of the opposition groups are currently holding a meeting with the representatives of the diplomatic corps in the central office of the opposition group, Strong Georgia.

Representatives of the diplomatic corps of the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Israel are reportedly attending the meeting.

We Vote releases new data on election violations

The local election observer coalition We Vote, who monitored 1,131 precincts on voting day, has stated that in 160 polling precincts, observers were prevented from observing. They added that people’s hands were not checked for ink at 191 polling stations, inking was not done at 153 polling stations, and secrecy of voting was violated in 365 precincts.

According to We Vote, physical confrontation, violence, or pressure was observed in 85 districts, while in 259 polling precincts they observed, unauthorised people were present at the precinct or in the vicinity of the precinct.

Read our article on how Russian media has covered Georgia’s contested election

Our editor Nate Ostiller has provided an overview of some of the trends in how Russian media has covered Georgia’s contested parliamentary election. The prevailing narratives have focused on how the West, not Russia or Georgian Dream, has meddled in the election.

[Read more: ‘Colour revolutions’, Western meddling, coups — how Russian media is covering Georgia’s election]

Mdinaradze claims presence of Russian propagandist ‘is a lie’

The Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, has reportedly claimed that it was ‘impossible’ for Russian propagandist Alexander Malkevich, who was accredited by the Central Election Commission despite being wanted by the US for engaging in interference in the US elections, to enter Georgia.

‘I am sure that either [the occupation law] has been violated, or there is no relevant data. I will find out if there was such data in the databases and it was indeed violated, it is impossible for him to enter, it is something else, as in other cases... I still think it is a lie, but maybe it's not a lie, something went wrong’, Mdinaradze said according to Mtavari Arkhi.

Opposition parties to meet with Western ambassadors in Tbilisi 

According to Mtavari Arkhi, representatives of Georgia’s opposition groups will meet with both US and European ambassadors at 18:00 at the offices of Lelo, one of Georgia’s opposition parties and member of the opposition Strong Georgia alliance. 

During this meeting, the opposition leaders will provide information about the violations they recorded during the 26 October elections.

Opposition party appeals to the courts

According to IPN, one of the leaders of the opposition For Georgia party, Natia Mezvrishvili, has announced during a press conference that they have information that the databases on the servers of the Central Election Commission (CEC) are being falsified, and that the information on the electronic devices is being deleted.

‘Each day of delay creates the risk of destroying vital evidence, which is only in the interest of [Georgian] Dream ’, IPN reported Mezvrishvili as stating. ‘Therefore, today we appealed to the court to ensure the protection of the said information wherever it is stored and to force the CEC to comply with our request’.

‘Otherwise, [Georgian] Dream will manage to destroy the evidence for any objective investigation, and it will be impossible to protect the electoral rights of hundreds of voters’.

Mdinaradze says Georgian Dream will not withdraw controversial foreign agent law

Local media has also reported that the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, vowed that the party would not withdraw the controversial foreign agent law, which labels any civil society or media organisation that receives at least 20% of its funding from abroad ‘organisations carrying out the interests of a foreign power’. 

‘First of all, the law is correct and it’s a Georgian law. And secondly, [the opposition] brands everything national and Georgian as “Russian” ’, he said, purportedly referencing criticisms of the law based on its alleged similarity to Russian legislation. 

‘Many politicians in Europe also do this — if they see something traditional, conservative, [then] everything is “Russian” ’, Mdinaradze added.

‘As for the law on transparency, if this law did not exist and if we did not have the support of citizens to prove the truth, tens of thousands of people would have gathered at Rustaveli Avenue [to protest] at this moment and there would have been a mess, but [the opposition] are exhausted’, he additionally claimed.

‘They have realised that a fake outcome [of the parliamentary elections held on 26 October] cannot be achieved with this fake protest. Both this law and the restricting of [LGBT] propaganda were legitimised by the majority of Georgian citizens’.

Mdinaradze claims the opposition ‘stole’ Georgian Dream votes

According to local media, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Khazaradze, has stated that Georgian Dream will apply to the Prosecutor’s Office with evidence that the opposition stole their votes during the parliamentary elections on 26 October. 

According to Mdinaradze, members of the opposition registered supporters of Georgian Dream as opposition representatives in other precincts, which is why the Central Election Commission (CEC) removed these Georgian Dream voters from the main electoral list and transferred them to additional lists. Mdinaradze said 81 cases were identified, which, according to him, indicates it was systematic.

He also added that when opposition representatives took ballot boxes out of polling stations, they ‘deliberately’ didn’t make voters sign a voter list, which is why the data was later annulled.

‘Now we are talking about the two schemes, how they chased each vote and how they stole the choice of the Georgian Dream supporters’, he said, according to RFE/RL.

Russian propagandist allegedly accredited by the CEC

The sanctioned Russian propagandist Alexander Malkevich, formerly associated with the Wagner Group’s Yevgeniy Prigozhin and wanted by the US for engaging in interference in the US elections, had media accreditation issued by Georgia’s Central Election Commission, Mtavari Arkhi has reported. They added that he was given the accreditation as a representative of the Russian television station NTV. 

Yesterday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a French-based organisation safeguarding the right to information and media freedoms, expressed alarm over the presence of Malkevich in Tbilisi during the Georgian elections. 

Estonian Ambassador reiterates that Georgia’s EU accession ‘has been frozen’

The Estonian Ambassador to Georgia, Marge Mardisalu-Kahar, has written on X that Georgia’s EU accession ‘has been frozen’ due to ‘democratic backsliding’.

Suggestions by some 🇬🇪 politicians that 🇬🇪 is progressing on it’s EU-path have nothing to do with reality. 🇬🇪 🇪🇺 accession has been frozen because of 🇬🇪democratic backsliding. That was a clear messages of 🇪🇺 Enlargement Report yesterday.https://t.co/BFNacoQjtB

— Marge Mardisalu-Kahar (@MargeKahar) October 31, 2024

Papuashvili claims Georgia’s integration process ‘has not stopped and will not stop’

The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has written on Facebook that, according to him, the European Commission’s enlargement report discusses the steps taken by Georgia and that, ‘according to the general assessment, Georgia is progressing on the path to membership in the European Union’.

According to Papuashvili, Georgia’s EU integration process ‘has not stopped and will not stop’.

‘The very fact that the European Commission worked on the enlargement document, assessed Georgia’s progress, and gave us recommendations, shows that this term is more of a political statement than an institutional situation’, he stated.

‘As the European Union continues to evaluate Georgia, we also continue to work on the issues provided for in the association agreement. This is what European integration is all about’.

Ukraine’s MFA urges Georgian government ‘not to follow the Belarusian path’

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry  has called on the Georgian government ‘not to follow the Belarusian path to the loss of sovereignty and independence’.

In yesterday’s statement, Ukraine supported the findings of the OSCE/ODIHR international mission, ‘which recorded numerous violations’ in the elections.

They highlighted that ‘the facts established by international observers should be investigated in order to ensure the legitimacy of the elections and avoid a political crisis’.

Edison Research: official results indicate a ‘manipulation’ of the votes

Reuters has reported that the polling company Edison Research, which conducted an exit poll during the  parliamentary elections for the Georgian TV channel Formula, stated that the official results indicate a ‘manipulation’ of the votes.

Edison Research’s exit poll showed Georgian Dream taking only 41% of the vote, but according to official votes tallied by the Central Election Commission, the ruling party received 54% of the vote.

‘The 13-point difference between Edison’s estimate and the official result of 54% for Georgian Dream cannot be explained by normal variation alone and suggests local-level manipulation of the vote’, Edison Research stated, according to Reuters.

EPP calls on democratic partners to investigate election irregularities

The European People’s Party stated yesterday that ‘by applying violence, pressure, intimidation, vote-buying, misuse of administrative resources and electoral manipulations, the Georgian Dream-led government has further distanced the country from democratic values, the rule of law and the prospect of European integration the Georgian people aspire to’.

They also called on their ‘democratic partners to engage in investigating the irregularities widely reported by all credible local and international observation missions’.

Opposition leader asks the public for tents

Nika Gvaramia, a leader from the opposition Coalition for Change, has called on people to contact the group if they have medium or large tents available to use. 

 ‘If you give us a gift — we will be happy, if you sell us [them] — we will still be happy’, he wrote on Facebook.

‘I am not going to hide anything. I will be open about everything from now on. [I don’t care about] SSG [State Security Service of Georgia], the Prosecutor’s Office, the police and Razhden [possibly referring to the head of Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Bureau]’.

Key events from yesterday:

• Three major opposition groupings have vowed to announce their plans at a rally on Rustaveli Avenue on Monday at 19:00. Giorgi Gakharia of For Georgia was absent from the briefing.
• The Prosecutor’s Office has announced that it was investigating claims of voter fraud, with two people, the deputy chair of Marneuli’s City Council believed to be among them, being detained for ballot stuffing in the city.
• The EU Commission’s enlargement report has found that Georgia made some limited progress in its implementation of recommendations required for it to move forward in the accession process.