Vote-rigging Attempted during Chairmanship Elections

(Tbilisi. November 9. Civil Georgia) – MPs disclosed an attempt at vote-rigging during the parliamentary chairmanship elections. The ballots to elect Chairman of the Parliament were numbered according to the name-list of MPs. This is a violation of the confidential vote.

It was clear before the voting was announced that none of the three candidates could receive the 118 votes necessary for election. According to the procedure, in such case the second round should be announced with the candidate with least number of votes casted off.

Numbered ballots would have allowed for forecasting the runoff elections with great precision and identifying undecided voters. The forgery was highly sphisticated – the numbers were watermarked on ballots.

One of the candidates to chairmanship, Jemal Gogitidze of the “Revival Union” demanded postponement of the elections. Part of the MPs support Gogitidze. 

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