Shalva Papuashvili, Member of the Political Council of “Georgian Dream“, and Speaker of Parliament, responds to accusations of opposition about alleged rigging of elections, violation of secrecy of votes and alleged pressure on the voters. He made this statement at a press conference held today at the party’s office.
“I must appear before you again in order to expose another misinformation. This is the third time that the opposition, a few millionaire NGOs, and their foreign patrons have been watching the Georgians. History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Tragically, the same history of rigged election repeated itself exactly four years ago. Yesterday was November 3. On November 3, 2020, the historic gathering in the studio of “Mtavari Akhi” took place. They signed a pledge that they would never enter the parliament, but then stopped and everyone entered. This is now repeated as a farce. The same actors and stage director are involved, but they believe that the audience will be the same. But everyone knows this farce very well, and these people themselves watch it. Let’s now look at our third series of revelations. I will discuss three issues: the secrecy surrounding the vote, which a particular NGO hysterically criticized, the mobilization and support of voters, and the existing conspiracies. We remind you, first, that six elections have been conducted using electronic counters. Since 2021, nobody has complained about secrecy or anything related to so-called ink in the ballots. He had no problem. They thought that this was an excuse after only 5 days because they had not seen any other argument.
Let’s now see what happens internationally. In the 2020 Polish parliamentary election, transparent boxes will be used (not electronic ballots), and ballots will not even be placed in envelopes. We either place the ballot in an envelope, or a frame in an envelope. In Poland, the ballot is not in an envelope. If you look closely, it is clear who the voter has voted for. What should GYLA say if the secrecy in Poland is violated and the 2020 parliamentary elections should be cancelled? Let’s move to the 2024 Bulgarian elections. Here too, the ballots were not placed in an envelope and you could see the party numbers. The voter’s choices were also visible. What does the Young Lawyers Association think about the cancellation of the Bulgarian parliamentary election? Lithuanian parliamentary elections were held just two weeks ago. It’s a semi-transparent, transparent box was used before. The ballots aren’t placed in an envelope and you can see the Lithuanian voter’s choice when they are cast.
Yesterday, you probably know that elections were held in Moldova. The opposition watched them with amazement. We have seen pictures where there is a semi-transparent envelope and the ballots were not placed inside. What does the “Association of Young Lawyers”, i.e., the “Association of Young Lawyers”, think about the cancellation of the presidential elections in Moldova? Is this the promise made by the Association of Young Lawyers to the Moldovans? This shows us how much fraud is already going on from the part of certain NGOs. They can’t find any arguments to support their political goals, and are now struggling with moss. But the moss that Georgians have seen for years. This is the problem: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially those who call themselves “monitoring organizations” and operate with foreign funds, were involved in election campaigns, aimed to achieve a specific result, were against the “Georgian Dream”, and now, this result has not been achieved, they are using their foreign funding to steal elections from Georgians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Lithuanians and Polish voters. This is the real reason for this delusion that we hear from the “Young Lawyers Association”. This is not the fault of a single non-governmental organization. It is the fault of the donors who allow such organizations to make these fraudulent conclusions, and then try to dissuade the Georgian people from making their choice. It is therefore the responsibility of the donors, and they cannot avoid this responsibility this time. I want them to be aware that their money is undermining democracy.
They were misinformed about voter mobilization. They went through the topics, but couldn’t come up with anything. Neither Tengo nor Toptwins explained. In the end, Mr. Khazaradze, and the rest, remained the hope for “TV Pirveli”. They found out that the parties were in contact with their voters, that they talked to their voters, and that they mobilized their own voter base. This has already taken a fascist tone in the social media network. We’ve seen an ex-public defender release personal data with context that directly marks individuals as targets of attacks. He distributes the names and surnames, as well as the lists of our coordinators, who were responsible for contacting voter, to these people. In one of the list, he has removed personal numbers. It seems that he doesn’t understand that names and surnames are also personal information. Distribute this information with the intention of identifying them as targets for verbal or violent attacks. I will also mention that the former public advocate is a representative from a nongovernmental organization. It is funded from the EU budget. And, of course, when fascist campaigns can be made possible by funding from the EU, it’s the EU’s responsibility. The “European Democracy Fund” is one of the financiers. This is the fund which secretly spends funds in Georgia for political activities and political parties. I don’t understand how this person could have been a public advocate for so long when he didn’t realize he was committing a serious violation by releasing a person’s private information, especially in the context of him being marked as an enemy and some physical abusers.
What is happening in the real world? We are all celebrating this famous story. After Tengo, Grigoli and Toptvins they had lost hope and were hung up on it. You are busy with your party work. Know and know your supporters to ensure they turn out at the polls. We have said repeatedly that all parties, or those with the resources to do so, do this. This is a proven method that has been used internationally. We have said repeatedly that IRI and NDI have even conducted training in this area.
Here are some guidelines: This is NDI’s guide to organizing a campaign. The 350-page guide explains how to create lists, voter bases and how to divide them up into supporters, opposition, undecideds and how to communicate with them. It also explains why all of this is necessary. This guide says that it’s not enough to love your voters if you only get their love from home. It doesn’t really matter how well you perform in the polls, if the voters don’t show up. It also said that you should check if the voter has voted, and ensure they come to vote. The process is described in detail and as a whole. All parties in the country have attended such seminars and trainings where international experience was shared. It explains in detail how the bases are to be created, what information they should contain, and how to convince people to vote. How to ensure that they attend the elections. Refer to IRI’s Guide to Organizing a Campaign. Here you will find quotes such as “It is the supporter that votes.” You can waste all your hard work if you do not ensure that your constituents vote. 2. Create your own database with voter information, such as name, phone number and address. This database should include a list of information. 3. Contact all supporters a week before the elections and remind them to vote. 4. Ask them to come and help them on the day of the elections, whether it is by transport or other means. We are dealing with a farce in the form non-governmental or opposition organizations. They have no argument, and they look for excuses to change their perception of the world. In fact, their idea of the world was shaped into a pseudoreligious direction. It does not matter if you are a member of a party or not. Anyone who follows this philosophy is a “people” representative. In their world, it is impossible that the Georgians would refuse to take power. Now they are faced with this psychological problem as they face the reality. This is also a complete falsehood, disinformation. As if compiling and organizing lists of voters and supporters was something Georgians did not do. Every party that has resources and is, to some degree, a large party, does this in every election. The foreign practice confirms that this is the principle behind the work of a party. We have included international guidelines and manuals in our collection.
Third, misinformation regarding high support. Salome Zurabishvili, NGOs, and the opposition are all involved in a xenophobic effort to manipulate people by highlighting certain constituencies in our country that are populated with ethnic minorities. This is a typical xenophobic effort, again carried out by foreign-funded organizations. Let’s examine the real situation and what we are dealing with. You know that the so-called majoritarian system was not used in these elections. Institute of Delegate. Each party could designate a specific candidate to represent this or that district on its election list, and then say that the person would be your district’s representative in the next Parliament.
“Georgian Dream”, appointed delegates in every district, in all thirty districts. We had all the delegates. Among them, the majority are active majoritarians with ties to region. All delegates were also representatives of region, people who have ties to region. We had delegates in all districts.
We also did a lot of door-to–door visits, where we visited every family with delegates and representatives from our headquarters. Door-to-door has many tasks, but one of them is to register voters. We also want to know who our voters are and who we can convince. Door to door also serves as a way to distribute information leaflets. We had a separate event for this, where we distributed leaflets about our achievements and election program. You know that there was a large-scale meeting in each region where we were all present. We also personally went to each region and held meetings. If we look at all the delegates’ activities, they are as follows: 5048 Meetings were held by only the delegates. This is the recorded meetings of 30 delegates over 50 days. This is an average 100 meetings per delegate per day in the country. During the election campaign these 50 meetings were held during the day. We visited every village, every district, and almost every family to speak with them, explain our election platform, and convince them to support “Georgian Dream”. What was the opposition up to at that time? – They were the only ones, not one party, not even a single delegate, none. They didn’t even have it, they didn’t tell the people that this person would be their representative in parliament. They didn’t include candidates from the region on the exit lists. This would have been the face of the area, where Imerletians, Kakhetians, Acharelians would think that this person is my vote and my representative in parliament. They did not include any ethnic groups on the exit lists. There was only a single party, and it did not represent the region where certain ethnicities are densely settled. They did not campaign at all in the area. You would have seen several sunsets when cameras were present. I’m not just talking about the region outside Tbilisi. I also mean Tbilisi. Ask them, and you asked them again, in Tbilisi and outside, if they had seen representatives of opposition parties going from village to village and district to district to meet people. They didn’t have a campaign in the area and their campaign consisted mainly of television and foreign support. During this election campaign, zero delegates from different districts in Georgia visited the USA, Belgium, Norway Sweden, Poland, Portugal and Italy. Instead of going to talk to people, they went to speak to foreigners. This worked out. You can see how many foreigners are voting for them compared to the Georgian population. Look at the 10 districts that received the most support. “Georgian Dream’ received the most support. There are no constituencies where only ethnically densely populated constituencies may exist. They are: Ninotsminda (also known as Akhalkalaki), Sachkhere (also known as Sachkhere), Bolnisi (also known as Marneuli), Lentekhi (also called Lentekhi), Dmanisi(also called Dmanisi), Kazbegi(also known by Mestia), Tsalka. Tbilisi is one municipality out of 64. “Georgian Dream”, which received 94% of the support, received more than 50% in 30 municipalities. The media and “Enjeos” are waging xenophobic campaign against Ninotsminda-Akhalkalaki where there was no designated delegate or representative of the region. There was also no representative from the ethnic groups on the lists. You know that our acting majoritarian from this district, from Ninotsminda-Akhalkalaki, is Samvel Manukian, who has been representing this region for years, and even now, as a delegate, he was actively involved, he went to every family, every district, talked to everyone, and what do you think, why should Did the representatives of this district vote for Gvaramia or Khazaradz? Do they believe that they will be watching it on television and have to vote using the TV button? Do these parties know what these people care about? This is the general explanation. They didn’t work with the people, they didn’t come to anyone. They spoke on TV to the entire country, including ethnically dense constituencies. They didn’t have a representative to represent them in the parliament. Sachkheri has a long-standing tradition of high support. You know that the mayor of Bolnisi was our delegate. He has been the mayor for many years. If you look at Bolnisi’s development, you can see why Georgian Dream enjoys such a high level of support. Zaur Dargal was our delegate in Marneuli. He is the current majority leader and has a special place in the region. In relation to these issues – Lentekhi Dmanisi Kazbegi – it is very easy to see why the opposition in Georgia was utterly defeated. It was utterly defeated in regions that didn’t even realize they should be their own representatives in parliament. Those who grew in this parquet thought they should be the representatives of the region. I will repeat, in these regions, where they are spreading a xenophobic message, the turnout is actually the lowest and even lower than in 2020. If they believe that the secrecy in voting in Georgia was violated and should therefore be canceled, then the presidential elections held yesterday in Moldova should also have been canceled. These four examples, as well as the parliamentary election held in Lithuania two weeks ago, the parliamentary election held in Poland and Bulgaria, should be canceled. Otherwise, I will give you one million other examples, and you can observe how the United States of America elections are conducted and you will see that secrecy is violated. Presenting voter mobilisation as though it were not a violation, but rather something that was not an international standard for party work is a lie. It only took two textbooks and five minutes to expose this farce. This includes the fascist campaigns that some NGOs run on social media. Look, the complex scheme that they were referring to is actually very simple. This scheme is called Democracy and People’s Support. This election was a catastrophic loss for the opposition. Don’t fool yourself or be complacent. It means that the Georgians gave them what they deserved, the place of traitors, stateless people and they should be here according to the verdict by the Georgians”, said Shalva Papuashvili.
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