Opposition parties against elections results
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, November 29
Georgia's nine opposition parties, mainly those who failed to gain any seat in the 150-member legislative body, have released a joint statement claiming that the October 8 Parliamentary Elections were falsified and unfair.
They all expressed readiness to unite their efforts in order to identify and investigate specific violations, also to recount the votes in the disputed polling stations and to punish offenders.
The statement, which came after all international and local organizations assessed the elections revealed the will of the Georgian people, was signed by Free Georgia, United Democratic Movement, Democratic Movement - United Georgia, New Christian-Democrats, the Labor Party, Alliance of Patriots, Traditionalists, the Political Movement of Veterans and Patriots.
From these parties, only the Alliance of Patriots gained six seats in Parliament.
“We, the opposition parties, believe that the October 8 parliamentary elections were totally rigged, biased and unfair and it distorted the will of the Georgian people,” the statement of the opposition reads.
Moreover, the opposition members enlisted 14 main topics in their statement, which contained the causes of fraud.
They stressed the ruling Georgian Dream authorities didn’t reject current election system, when 76 lawmakers are elected through the party list voting and the remaining 73 via the majoritarian rule. The opposition demanded the scrapping of the majoritarian elections.
They also protested current election lists and highlighted the necessity of new ID cards distribution that excluded voting violations.
The parties accused the Government of the illegal use of administrative resources, bribing of voters and assaulting of opposition supporters and election observers.
The signatories stated that businesses were still pressured to finance the ruling party’s election campaigning and the opposition parties didn’t have good opportunities to use the media in the pre-election period.
They also said a large amount of ballot papers were annulled after the elections, and the final protocols didn’t reflect the real picture, as the election administrations were controlled by the ruling team.
The victorious party has many times dismissed such statements, saying “the positive reports” from all international and local organizations, which indicated only minor violations, contradicted most of what some opposition parties said.
