Georgia’s ruling party on course for victory over vote-rigging allegations – POLITICO

According to Ketevan Chachava, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, “the polling station results we see now are based on electronic voting machines — about two-thirds of the total, but that could change. However, Georgian Dream’s vote is expected to be lower than in previous elections, and this figure is actually higher than predicted, and they are clearly in a strong position.”

Opposition parties criticized what they said were systematic attempts to influence the outcome increasingly authoritarian governmentwhich has promised to ban its opponents from holding its seats and to outlaw rival factions if re-elected with a sufficient majority.

“They are throwing urnsabuse of voters and beating of observers,” said Tina Bokuchava, the leader A single national movement (UNM), the largest opposition party in the coalition. “These are not the actions of a government that believes in free and fair elections.”

This was shown by photos and videos published on the network during the day disruptions at polling stations across the country, with claims that one ballot box had been thrown into the street, and a video of a Georgian Dream politician allegedly throwing a stack of ballots into another. In the city of Marneuli, not far from the capital Tbilisi, one opposition observer was beaten, and local journalists were attacked unidentified persons.

One foreign election observer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly with POLITICO, said there was fighting at another polling station near the country’s border with neighboring Azerbaijan. “We have witnessed attempts to throw ballots where the perpetrators were detected, ran away and then simply waited for the observers to leave before trying again,” said an observer. “Given the number of similar accusations from other precincts, I am afraid that there will be international observers as well very difficult time recognizing these elections as fair.”

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), a Tbilisi-based NGO, said in statement that “incidents and violations were recorded during voting throughout the country.” One in ten of its election observers reported problems, including accusations that voters were being brought in by Georgian Dream coordinators.