Georgia’s ruling party accuses opposition of vote theft

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Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, has accused the opposition of alleged fraud in the parliamentary elections, despite its official claim of victory with over 50% of the votes, and has filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office.

Source: Mamuka Mdinaradze, the party’s executive secretary, cited by Georgia-News, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: Mdinaradze alleged that the United National Movement, Mikheil Saakashvili’s party, and its allies were involved in vote theft.

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Quote: “We have 81 confirmed cases, which we will present to the Georgian prosecutor’s office today. Since the opposition either cannot or will not provide evidence, we will submit ours. As they are not cooperating with the investigation, we will cooperate to ensure no one in this country can commit such crimes.”

Mdinaradze appears to be referring to cases where opposition members have refused to testify on potential violations, expressing distrust in Georgian authorities and demanding investigations involving international organisations.

Details: The Georgian Dream general secretary claims that the opposition had used two “vote-stealing” schemes. The first allegedly involved registering supporters of the ruling party as representatives of opposition groups in distant voting districts, thus preventing them from casting their ballots. 

The second scheme reportedly involved portable ballot boxes, with Mdinaradze claiming that opposition representatives selectively omitted the signatures of Georgian Dream supporters, leading to the cancellation of results from those ballot boxes.

“They chased down every vote, stole the choice of individual supporters of Georgian Dream, and stole our votes… So I urge the Georgian prosecutor’s office to thoroughly investigate these incidents,” Mdinaradze concluded.

Background: 

• The Georgian Central Election Commission recently announced that Georgian Dream had won nearly 54% of the vote. However, the opposition and the president have refused to recognise the results, accusing the government of electoral fraud. International observers in their preliminary report pointed out numerous issues during the voting process.
• Previously, Georgian Dream announced that it would not withdraw the controversial “foreign agents” law, which has been a significant factor in strained relations with Western partners and the stalling of Georgia’s EU membership aspirations.

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