Opposition Accused of ‘Blackmailing’ CEC
The authorities have accused opposition leaders on January 8 of undertaking “unlawful action” and “blackmailing” the Central Election Commission (CEC).
“No one will ever be allowed to exert unlawful pressure on the activities of this independent body [the CEC],” Eka Tkeshelashvili, the justice minister, said.
Her remarks came after presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze and other opposition leaders from the nine-party coalition marched into CEC Chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili’s office on January 8 and accused him in a verbal exchange of rigging and manipulating election results.
Tkeshelashvili condemned the opposition’s move as “attempted blackmail” and “an obvious violation.”
“Naturally, this is a very regrettable political act, by which the opposition leaders’ obvious violation not only has damaged the reputation of our country, but has also insulted the Georgian people,” Tkeshelashvili said.
She dismissed opposition allegations of ballot rigging, saying they were totally groundless. She claimed that all post-election procedures, including vote counting and compiling of vote summary protocols, were transparent and carried out with the participation of opposition members of the election administrations.
“The precinct commissions and Central Election Commission are managed collectively [with opposition participation],” Tkeshelashvili said. “So it is disingenuous when they [the opposition] try to portray themselves as having no control over the process, with only one person [the CEC chief] playing the decisive role in the commission’s work.”
The opposition has claimed that original vote summary protocols from the precincts were falsified at the mid-level, District Election Commissions, with the CEC chairman doing nothing to prevent it.
