Coalition for Change Presents Evidence of Alleged Election Fraud Scheme
On November 14 the opposition Coalition for Change, made up of the Ahali, Girchi-More Freedom and Droa parties, which garnered the most votes among other opposition coalitions, presented a document detailing evidence of electoral fraud. The Coalition also brought hundreds of filed complaints describing the violations, which were displayed at the venue.
Zurab Japaridze, one of the leaders of the coalition, presented the extensive document at a special press-conference, which was attended by journalists from all Georgian media, including the pro-government media outlets. The document draws conclusions about fraud scheme based on specific cases. The presentation focused on the main findings, such as:
- The Georgian elections were not qualified as “free and fair” by any authoritative international and local organizations and Georgia’s international partners;
- The exit polls results by reputable international organizations differed dramatically and unexplainably from the official results;
- The principle of ballot secrecy was widely breached;
- The elections did not allow voters to freely express their will;
- Electoral manipulation was so widespread that it had a substantial impact on the election results;
- Multiple methods of election rigging were used simultaneously;
- Suspicions of Russian interference in the election are justified;
- Significant statistical inconsistencies, including between voter turnout, voter choices, and election results, have been uncovered, indicating election manipulation by the ruling party;
- Investigating the elections is essential to finding the truth and resolving the current political crisis;
- An unbiased investigation of the elections by Georgia itself is impossible, as all state institutions and the judiciary are completely controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party;
- The existing data and evidence provide a solid basis for an international, impartial and independent investigation to determine whether, how and to what extent the elections in Georgia were rigged.
The presentation highlighted key points alleging significant election fraud.
Historically Accurate Exit Polls Suggest Official Results Are “Statistically Impossible”
Japaridze showed the results of exit polls by the credible Edison Research and HarrisX, which put the Georgian Dream at 40.9 and 42 percent, respectively.
“In the case of Edison Research, the discrepancy [with official results in terms of GD] is 13 percent, and in the case of HarrisX – 12 percent. The companies believe that such an inconsistency is statistically impossible and cannot be explained by the standard margin alone,” Japaridze said.
- 01/11/2024 – Edison Research: 13-Percentage Point Difference Between Exit Polls and Official Election Results Suggests Vote Manipulation
- 31/10/2024 – HarrisX Final Georgia 2024 Exit Poll Analysis Reveal Statistically Unexplainable Data Discrepancies
Zurab Japaridze also emphasised that in previous elections, Edison Research’s exit polls had always been close to the official results, and that the maximum difference between his exit polls and the official results for GD was around two percent.
Statistical Anomalies, Gender Analysis
The document also points to statistical analyses that show election anomalies, including the popular “Russian tale,” especially in rural areas, indicating possible cases of ballot stuffing.
For example, the government took 42 percent in large precincts and 65 percent in small precincts. By comparison, the corresponding highs in the 2020 election were 45 percent and 55 percent.
In addition, the document notes the suspicious gender trend uncovered by local observer International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED). It is noteworthy that men outnumbered women in many precincts, but more importantly, in several precincts, more than 100 percent of registered male voters were indicated to cast their ballots.
Fraudulent Schemes
Among the fraudulent schemes presented were violation of ballot secrecy, fraudulent voter identification, illegal appropriation of identities, and multiple voting.
Regarding the violation of the secrecy of the ballot, Japaridze stressed that in precincts with electronic voting (where about 90% of the voters voted), the ballot showed on the other side of the paper who the person was voting for.
- 07/11/2024 – Tbilisi Court of Appeals Rejects Alleged Breach of Ballot Secrecy, Upholding Official Results
- 04/11/2024 – Judge Confirms Vote Secrecy Violation, Setting Important Precedent
As for fraudulent voter identification, Japaridze said that voters were asked whether they wanted to be marked or not, while marking was the mandatory rule. If they were not marked, they could go to other polling stations to vote again.
Commenting on the illegal appropriation of identities, Japaridze said that both opposition and ruling party voters were deprived of identity cards before the elections, which were then used allegedly to control their arrival at polling stations or to register other people’s personal information in verification machines at different polling stations for multiple voting.
Emigrant Voting
In addition, Japaridze said that as many as 600,000 emigrants could not register at the consular registry, claiming that their IDs were available to the ruling party for use in fraudulent schemes as this information was available to the authorities.
Japaridze also alleged that the ruling party had tampered with the verification machines, allegedly registering people’s personal information in many machines to allow their voters to vote multiple times.
He said that the violations were either one-off multiple or systematic, meaning that the same violations often occurred in many polling stations. He said that about 70 percent of the violations were of a systemic nature.
During the presentation, Japaridze emphasized that all state institutions, including the Central Election Commission, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Justice and others were involved in the rigging scheme.
He said the coalition will share the document with Georgia’s international partners. The full document will be updated to include more cases.
Also Read:
- 2024 Election Live Blog
- 01/11/2024 – International Reactions to Results of the Parliamentary Elections in Georgia
- 28/10/2024 – Observer Mission Talks of Main Scheme of Large-Scale Election Fraud, Seeks Annulment of Results from 189 Polling Stations
- 27/10/2024 – International Election Observation Mission Preliminary Findings and Conclusions
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
