Georgian opposition parties, along with local election monitoring groups, say they are gathering evidence of a large scale rigging scheme which led to the shocking victory of the ruling Georgian Dream Party in the October parliamentary elections.
According to official results, Georgian Dream received 53,9% of the votes, compared with 37,8% for the four opposition parties that exceeded the threshold of 5%. The Central Election Commission released data that shows Georgian Dream making significant gains compared to 2020 elections. The results, which were released amid allegations of fraud surprised government critics, after the ruling party’s anti-democratic, anti-Western actions led to a general belief that Georgian Dream was losing some of its support.
The official results, along with reports of violations during the campaign and on election day, led the opposition parties to declare the vote illegitimate. Salome Zurabishvili, the president of Georgia, refused to recognize the official election results. She called the elections “Russian special operations” and called on supporters to rally for their votes on October 28.
Now, major opposition groups and local observers are preparing evidence for election fraud.
Georgian Dream, according to official data won in most regions in Georgia but lost in major cities or was close to losing.
After the polls closed in Georgia on October 26, My Vote, a coalition of civil society groups that aims to deploy the largest on the ground monitoring mission for the 2024 elections, released a statement claiming to have uncovered a ‘grand scheme’ to rig the parliamentary elections.
The final statement by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, a key Georgian electoral watchdog, was equally critical. “The number of fundamental violations that were identified on election day and in the campaign directly affected voters’ freedom of choice and the results of the elections,” ISFED head Nino Dolidze said on Facebook.
Dolidze said that violations which could have affected the result included ballot stuffing, multiple voting, violations of the voter marking procedure, “which is indicative a carousel”, restrictions on full observation by observers of the verification machines making it impossible to monitor the registration process, “unprecedented levels” of vote buying outside of polling stations, verbal and physically confrontations, expulsion of observers from the polling station, including insults, mobilization of voters outside of precincts and collection of personal data,
My Vote published a detailed report on October 28 detailing a complex and sophisticated alleged plan that helped the government manipulate the election. The scheme included a well organized “carousel”, in which individuals were able to vote multiple times at different precincts with different ID information, all with the help from ruling party-loyal registration officers. This was made easier by the incorrect application of marking fluid on suspected individuals, the deliberate blocking of independent observers from watching the voter verification process and a hostile attitude towards independent observers to avoid detection.
My Vote sought to annul the ballots cast by precincts that had up to 300,000 voters.
“Technological Special Operation (TSO)”
The allegations of Election Day violation follow a long and arduous campaign that saw reports of the use administrative resources by the ruling party as well as voter pressure and intimidation, pressure on the civil society and opposition, and controversial changes to legislation and procedures that undermined the legitimacy of the election administration.
International observation missions, such as OSCE/ODIHR have also noted this. They stated that “reports on pressure on voters remained widespread during the campaign,” and that, when combined with the extensive tracking of voters on the day of the election, “raised concern about the ability of certain voters to cast their votes without fear of retribution.”
In the past two days there has also been growing suspicion that the government used electronic voting technology to rig the elections. Electronic voting was used up to 90% of precincts. It included technology installed in the polling station that verified voters and counted votes. But critics fear the machines were misused, especially after reports that observers could not properly monitor the verification process.
“The operation of the verification machines and lists uploaded to them requires special attention.” Dolidze, from ISFED, said that they were working on it. ISFED refused this year to publish the results from the Parallel Vote Tabulation. They argued that, while the PVT was consistent with the official results it could not be a valid measure in the context of alleged violations. Dolidze told Civil.ge in an interview conducted days before the election that electronic voting technology still leaves room for the possibility of multiple voting or voting for someone else.
Nika Gvaramia of the Coalition for Change, the leader of the opposition, called the elections a “usurpation” of power, a Russian “special technical operation,” which he said opposition parties and observers could not control. Gvaramia said that the opposition was denied access to the electronic voting machines used for the 2024 election by the government.
Other opposition parties including the United National Movement expressed concern over the operation of the machines and called for an investigation. For Georgia, led by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia claims to have enough evidence of ID card fraud to warrant a prosecutor’s inquiry.
We call for an immediate and full audit of all machines in the 90% of precincts that used the controversial Smartmatic voting process.
In several precincts we saw machines overloading and jamming ….– United National Movement(enm) (@UNMGeorgia). October 28, 2024
#IWITNESSEDFRAUD
As various videos and reports circulate on social media using the hashtag #IWITNESSEDFRAUD, (#mevnaxegaqalbeba), pointing out various schemes of possible electoral fraud, allegations are increasing.
In the uploaded material, various observers allege, among other things, that citizens came to the polling station to find out that someone had already voted for them (1, 2, 3); people who had undergone marking procedures allowed to precincts, and observers were forced to do their jobs in hostile environments.
There were also many reports of breaches in voter secrecy. For example, the marker left traces behind on the ballot, allowing commission members to easily see the choice of the voter as they tried to insert the ballot into the automatic ballot boxes. Other reports included reports of suspicious schemes by outside groups, such as giving passports to voters before entering precincts.
Data scientists have also pointed out irregularities in voting patterns that are typical of rigging.
GEORGIA – RIGGED ELECTION
I spent the last 48-hours proving that the Georgian elections were rigged.
Let me show you two charts to prove my point.
Chart 1: Russian tail… pic.twitter.com/dHgWBWUeiF– Levan (@LevanKvirkvelia) October 28, 2024
Also Read:
* 2024 Election Live Blog
* International Reactions To The Results Of The Parliamentary Elections In Georgia
* Blinken – U.S. Condemns Breach of International Standards Elections on Oct.26, Calls for an Investigation
Read More @ civil.ge