Georgian Election Commission calls on prosecutor to investigate claims of voter fraud

Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has called on the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the widespread claims of electoral fraud in Saturday’s elections.

On Tuesday evening, the CEC proposed that the General Prosecutor’s Office investigate whether claims of electoral fraud made by President Salome Zourabichvili, other politicians, and ‘interested persons’ were true.

‘It is necessary to conduct a complex and objective investigation, which is beyond the competence of the election administration’, the CEC said.

‘On our part, we express our readiness to cooperate with the investigation and to smoothly provide interesting and necessary information for the investigation in the institution.’

The CEC had earlier that day accused Zourabichvili of trying to ‘discredit electoral technologies’, while defending the electronic voting system and saying that attempts to discredit it were ‘a denial of reality and an attempt to mislead society for political interests’.

‘At the international level, the president is trying to discredit the election administration, which organised the most important elections at the highest level’, the statement read.

‘The observation missions of OSCE/ODIHR and other international organisations confirmed in their statements and evaluations that the elections were administered in a qualified and professional manner. However, the president tries to present the situation differently’.

Earlier on Tuesday, Tamar Kordzaia, from the opposition group Unity — National Movement, urged the CEC to add a database of voters who participated in Saturday’s parliamentary elections to their website so that citizens can verify who voted themselves.

‘This means that the voter must be able to check whether they are validly in the list in the precinct where they signed. Such software from the CEC ensures that the voter will be able to verify their vote to make sure that their vote has not been lost or has not been used by someone else’, she said. 

In an apparent response to Kordzaia’s demand, CEC spokesperson Natia Ioseliani stated that the creation of such a database would be against the law because it would make personal data public.

‘Notably, no formal complaints have been filed on this matter, suggesting that these demands may serve a political agenda, creating the impression that the election administration is withholding information’, the CEC spokesperson added.

Giorgi Gakharia, the chair of the opposition For Georgia party, expressed support for the idea. He criticised the CEC’s refusal to make the database available, and argued that the commission should allow individual access to such a database for the over two million Georgians who voted last Saturday so that they could verify their participation, the polling station where they voted, and the exact time they cast their ballot. 

The official results of the parliamentary elections, which granted Georgian Dream a fourth consecutive parliamentary victory with 54% of the vote, were disputed by all four of Georgia’s opposition groupings, who vowed to reject their seats and demand a new election under international administration.

We Vote, a coalition of local election observers, have claimed they identified a multiple voting scheme that occurred along with the collusion of the CEC.

International organisations and Georgia’s Western partners have continued to issue statements of concern over reports of electoral irregularities throughout Tuesday.

On Monday evening, Global Affairs Canada issued a statement noting that the country is ‘concerned’ over ‘widespread acts of voter intimidation, vote buying, and other election day irregularities’ as reported in the OSCE/ODIHR preliminary report, and also called for an investigation. 

‘In coordination with our G7 and European partners, and in light of the conduct and results of this election, Canada will reassess its relationship with the Georgian leadership. Canada remains open to cooperation with Georgia, as long as the Georgian leadership respects democracy, human rights, rule of law and addresses the recent democratic backsliding’, the statement read. 

Michael Roth, the chair of the German Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, stated on Tuesday that the EU ‘must not recognise’ the results of the elections.

Also on Tuesday, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee published a statement declaring that in the areas visited by their observers, the parliamentary elections in Georgia ‘failed to meet fundamental standards for free and fair elections’. The committee specifically cited the ‘widespread presence of intimidating groups of unaccredited persons outside the polling stations’, which violated Georgia’s election code and ‘compromised the secrecy of the vote and the voters’ ability to express their opinion freely’.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday expressed his ‘concern’ over the ‘ultimatums’ given by the US and EU member states to the  Georgian government as part of their criticism of the parliamentary elections.

‘We are seeing completely patronising statements coming from both the United States and the European Union, where ultimatums are practically being issued to the Georgian leadership’, said the Kremlin spokesperson, adding that those reactions were ‘utterly repugnant’.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also responded to remarks made by US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller the previous day. Miller had said that the US does not ‘rule out further consequences if the Georgian government’s direction does not change’. 

In a  post on Telegram, Zakharova  accused the West of ‘neocolonialism’.

‘Democracy, sir, here we are. Next stop is neocolonialism’, she wrote.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro similarly lashed out at the US for not respecting the victory of the ‘leftist, progressive, and nationalist’ ruling party in the election. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has lashed out at the US for not respecting the victory of the ‘leftist, progressive, and nationalist’ ruling party in Georgia’s parliamentary and said that the US treats Georgia like its own colony.
▶️ Georgia updates: https://t.co/8YJADUAbAj pic.twitter.com/JpzrvIu1JI

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Maduro called the previous Georgian governments ‘servile’ to the US, and falsely claimed that Georgian Dream won 56% of the vote.

He then went on to claim the US has not recognised the results of the Georgian election, and asked rhetorically, ‘do you believe that the people of the world want to be treated like slaves, like a colony?’

While US officials have criticised the circumstances in which the election was held and noted irregularities, there has not yet been an official statement saying the results were not recognised.