Opposition Slams Voter Lists

The opposition renewed its attack on the Central Election Commission (CEC) on December 14, claiming it had artificially inflated voter lists to rig the forthcoming election.

The total number of registered voters is 3,372,836, according to the CEC. The opposition, however, has cast doubt on the figure, comparing it with the comparative figures for the 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections – over 2.2 million – and the 2006 local self-governance elections – 3.2 million.

“Of course [the apparent increase in the number of voters] raises doubts that the voter lists were deliberately falsified,” MP Valery Gelbakhiani, a Badri Patarkatsishvili presidential campaign official, said on December 14.  “The authorities are deliberately rigging and fabricating voter lists.”

“The Georgian population is declining, but the number of voters has increased by one million,” Giorgi Gugava, presidential candidate Shalva Natelashvili’s campaign manager, said at a news conference on December 14. “The so called ‘dead souls’ and fabricated names were included in the voter lists in order to organize a merry-go-round in favor of Saakashvili on polling day.” 
 
Earlier this week Davit Bardavelidze and Nino Goguadze, members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) from the Freedom and Conservative parties, respectively, also questioned the CEC figures. Both parties are members of the nine-party opposition coalition, which backs Levan Gachechiladze for the presidency.

The CEC has, however, rejected the allegations. CEC Chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili said it was absolutely wrong to compare 2004 voter lists with the current one. He said that voter lists in 2004 only included those who actually turned up at the polling stations to register themselves, which was not the actual number of voters. The number consequently increased following verification of voter lists, he said.