Tbilisi (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The ruling Georgian Dream party declared a majority in an election, but four main opposition groups refused to acknowledge the result declaring the election was “rigged.”
Georgia’s electoral commission asserted that the ruling Georgian Dream party had asserted a comfortable majority election, with 54% of the vote based on 99% of precincts counted. Four main opposition parties, who had arranged to band together to pull the Georgian Dream from power, collected 37%, with votes from the Georgian diaspora abroad yet to be calculated.
Ruling party Georgian Dream’s leader Bidzina Ivanishvili claimed success soon after polls shut, telling followers it was a “rare occasion” that a party gained victory for four terms in a row. The stage was set for turmoil as the four opposition parties immediately declined to recognise the results, claiming the results were rigged and fabricated.
What discrepancies are opposition parties claiming in vote counts?
Right after Georgian Dream claimed success, the four opposition parties elated and congratulated each other in their headquarters based on results from exit polls that offered a dramatically different result. One poll by Edison indicated four opposition parties with 51.9% of the vote and Georgian Dream at 40.9%
The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) previously stated that 90% of the vote would be public within two hours of polls closing, however, unleashed complete results several hours later. Members of opposition groups pointed to unexpectedly high numbers of Georgian Dream votes in locations such as Tbilisi, which is considered to be an opposition bastion.
One survey by HarrisX for pro-opposition channels showed Georgian Dream 42% of the vote and the combined opposition parties 48%.
“We analysed the data from these precincts and there’s a wide discrepancy from the data we have. In some cases, they have districts in Tbilisi where Georgian Dream are winning by 45% of the vote, whereas we know most of the opposition vote came from Tbilisi,”
HarrisX said.
How are international observers responding to Georgia’s election?
Moreover, several Georgian electoral observers’ bodies said there were incidents of breaches as Georgians cast their votes. One videotape of someone stuffing a ballot box in Marneuli went viral as voting was ongoing, with the Interior Ministry revealing there would be an investigation into the happening and all votes from the polling station declared null.
My Vote, a local monitoring mission comprised of several Georgian civil societies, called for results to be rejected based on several happenings of voter manipulation as well as harassment at polling places. The European Parliament affirmed the elections were monitored by both domestic and international observers, including a panel from the EU Parliament.
