Burjanadze Boycotts Election Results

Confrontation Grows, as Two Governmental Parties Lead the Polls

Burjanadze: We will not step back.

Nino Burjanadze, the Parliamentary Chairperson and the leader of Burjanadze-Democrats opposition alliance said today “we will not recognize results of the November 2 parliamentary elections.”

“The elections were held with mass ballot fraud, results were totally falsified by the authorities and we are not going to cooperate with the people in the Parliament, who rigged the votes. We are not going to be the members of the Parliament, which is not elected by the Georgian people,” Nino Burjanadze said at a news briefing today.

Confrontation over controversial November 2 parliamentary election results increased, as two governmental parties lead the polls.

With about 90% of votes counted the Revival Union, led by head of Adjara Autonomous Republic Aslan Abashidze and the President Shevardnadze’s election bloc For New Georgia lead the election results. The opposition National Movement, led by Mikheil Saakashvili, is downgraded on the third place with 18,5%, followed by the Labor Party – 11,6% and the Burjanadze-Democrats – 7,5%.

The Burjanadze-Democrats is the second opposition alliance, which boycotts the election results. The Unity election bloc, which is led by the former Georgian Communist leader Jumber Patiashvili, refused on November 6 to recognize election results. The National Movement opposition bloc has not made any comments regarding its position over the boycott so far.

The Burjanadze-Democrats’ decision follows an unexpected surge by the Revival Union in election results. The success of the Revival comes after the final tally of elections from Adjara was submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC) on November 6. In the highly suspicious elections Revival Union received 95% support of the voters living in the Autonomous Republic.

“This result was really surprising even for me,” Nana Devdariani, Chairperson of the CEC said on November 6, while commenting on the tally from Adjara.

The international observation mission’s preliminary findings report says that serious violations took place “mostly in Adjara, where ballot stuffing marred the process, and implausible turnout data raises concerns about respect for voters’ and candidates’ rights.”

The opposition National Movement, as well as the Burjanadze-Democrats, demanded cancellation of the Adjara election results. Mikhail Saakashvili accused President Shevardnadze and Revival Union leader Aslan Abashidze of making a deal to split votes.

“Manipulation of election results means that they [Aslan Abashidze and Eduard Shevardnadze] are abolishing the results of the elections and the elections were just held in vain, with all the violations, the results are not recognized, which we qualify as usurpation of power and as some kind of a coup d’etat committed by the government,” Mikheil Saakashvili said a news briefing late on November 6, while commenting on the tally of Adjara results.

On November 6 Mikheil Saakashvili called for the population to rally on November 8 in the center of Tbilisi to protest against the ballot fraud and defend the voter rights.