Elections in Georgia: “Georgian Dream” accuses the opposition of fraud, and sociologists doubt the official results

The ruling party "Georgian Dream" filed a complaint against the opposition to the prosecutorʼs office. The authorities accuse competitors of rigging the parliamentary elections, despite their own official victory with more than 50% of the vote.

This is reported by News Georgia.

Fraud is blamed on the members of Mikheil Saakashviliʼs United National Movement political force and their associates.

"We have 81 confirmed facts [of the theft of votersʼ votes], which we are presenting to the Prosecutorʼs Office of Georgia. Since they canʼt or wonʼt provide evidence, we will provide it. If they do not cooperate with the investigation, we will cooperate so that no one in this country can commit such crimes," says the executive secretary of “Georgian Dream” Mamuka Mdinaradze.

Presumably, the official meant the oppositionʼs refusal to testify about the facts of violations during the voting. Then the opponents of the government declared that they did not trust the authorities. They demanded an independent investigation involving international organizations.

It is claimed that the opposition allegedly had two vote-stealing schemes:

• fictitious registration of voters supporting the "Georgian Dream" in remote regions, which prevented them from voting at the place of registration;
• violation related to portable ballot boxes. The oppositionists allegedly did not ask supporters of the ruling party to sign in front of their surname during registration. Such results had to be annulled.

Sociologists from the USA also doubt the official results of the parliamentary elections in Georgia, writes Reuters. An exit poll by Edison Research, which was commissioned by the opposition TV channel Formula, predicted only 41% support for “Georgian Dream”, and more than 50% for the united opposition.

"The 13% difference between Edisonʼs forecast and the official Georgian Dream result of 54% cannot be explained by normal variability. This indicates the possibility of manipulation of the results at the local level," the company says.

The discrepancy is especially noticeable in specific precincts in the villages, sociologists added. HarrisX, which conducted an exit poll for the opposition Mtavari Arkhi, also questioned the official results.

"We are seeing unexplained discrepancies of more than 8% of the total vote, or 172 523 raw votes, in at least 27 counties," HarrisX said in a statement.

• Parliamentary elections in Georgia were held on October 26. According to CEC, the victory was won by the pro-government party "Georgian Dream — Democratic Georgia", which won 53.9% of the vote. It gets the right to single-handedly form a government. Four more pro-Western opposition parties overcame the 5% barrier: "Coalition for Changes" — 10.92%, "Unity — National Movement" — 10.12%, "Strong Georgia" — 8.78% and "Gakharia — for Georgia" — 7.76%.
• At the same time, the exit polls of the opposition channels showed that the opposition won 52% of the votes, and "Georgian Dream" 40.9%. The opposition political forces of Tbilisi do not recognize the election results, as does President Salome Zurabishvili.
• International observers of the parliamentary elections in Georgia recorded a number of violations during voting: cases of violence against the opposition, intimidation and bribery of voters, multiple voting and removal of observers from polling stations.
• In the evening of October 28, a protest against the results of the parliamentary elections began in Tbilisi. The Georgian opposition announced a rally on November 4. People will demand that the results of the vote be annulled.

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