Ruling Party: Opposition Tries to Create Impression of ‘Tense Polls’
Davit Bakradze, the ruling party leader, said elections were ongoing “in normal and calm conditions.”
He, however, accused “some representatives of the opposition parties of deliberately trying to provoke tensions and to create an impression through provocations as if elections are ongoing in tense conditions.”
He again accused MP Bezhan Gunava of the nine-party opposition bloc of smashing the ballot box at one of the polling stations in the Marneuli district in Shida Kartli region. MP Gunava has strongly denied the allegation and accused the ruling party of exerting pressure on opposition representatives in the precinct commissions in the Marneuli district.
He also said that a woman, an opposition activist from the nine-party bloc, was detained when she allegedly tried “to hijack” a polling station’s official seal from precinct number 4 of the Akhmeta district in the Kakheti region. Bakradze alleged that the opposition activist tried “to hijack” the seal in order to hamper the electoral process.
Bakradze also said that another opposition activist from the same bloc, Beso Sarjveladze, was detained in Khashuri in the Shida Kartli region because he allegedly carried nine ballot papers which were marked with number 5 – the ruling party’s number in the ballot papers. “It was a deliberate provocation and those ballot papers had nothing to do with our party and this person just wanted to create an impression that we want to rig the elections,” Bakradze said. “I demand punishment of any person who tries to stage provocation of this kind strictly in accordance to the law.”
Bakradze also accused Tina Khidasheli, one of the leaders of the Republican Party, of “physically insulting” voters who came to cast ballot in the polling station number 66 of the Tbilisi’s Saburtalo district.
Tina Khidasheli, however, strongly denied the accusation and said that she tried to prevent ‘merry-go-round’ voting, whereby an individual casts several ballots in different polling stations.
