The opposition warns the government will use its “administrative leverages” for ballot fraud in order to succeed in the November 2 parliamentary elections.
The police will be on high alert during the elections. The Interior Ministry wants to establish special rules for the policemen to vote. Thus, opposition fears that the policemen’s votes will be easily rigged, as they will vote under the supervision of high-rank police officers.
“If the police are on high alert, policemen will have no chance to go to polling stations and vote. Special polling stations may be opened for them, where up to 40,000 policemen will vote under the supervision of high-rank police officials, thus they will be forced to vote for the governmental bloc,” Zurab Zhvania said at a news briefing on September 19.
According to the unofficial reports, the leadership of the Interior Ministry requested the policemen and employees of the ministry to provide their passport and ID data. This fact further increased fears over the possible ballot frauds among the policemen.
“Several days ago, our leadership requested our ID documents and registered their numbers. I do not know exactly, why they need these numbers, because this has never happened before. However, I guess this is connected with elections, as the ID numbers are necessary for voting. Besides, we will be on full readiness regime on November 2, which means that all of us will stay on the posts during the whole day,” a police officer told Civil Georgia on condition of anonymity.
The Interior Ministry dismissed the accusations as “absurd.” Deputy Interior Minister David Todua said the police will be on high alert not because the ministry wants to rig election, but in order “to maintain public order on the election day.”
“Having the officers on full duty on the day of elections is a normal measure. Our primary function is to maintain public order. The same was done during the previous elections too. Many officers were on duty during the whole day,” Deputy Interior Minister David Todua told Civil Georgia.
Paata Gomelauri, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, also denied that the ID numbers of the policemen were registered.
“Nobody has asked me for my passport. I cannot imagine, who could have said such nonsense,” Gomelauri told Civil Georgia.
The opposition claims that the “discredited government” will use not only the police votes to succeed in the elections. Zurab Zhvania did not rule out possibility of similar pressure on the employees of other state structures, especially in the Ministry of Education.
“Teachers, who support our bloc, were already threatened to be fired,” Zhvania said.
Nino Burjanadze, the Parliamentary Chairperson and the leader of the Burjanadze-Democrats, said at a news briefing on September 23 that the employees of the state-owned Georgian Railway company are also under pressure to vote for the presidential-backed election bloc For New Georgia. Chief of the company Akaki Chkhaidze is one of the leaders of the election bloc For New Georgia.
Reportedly the government will also try to use the votes of the internally displaced persons from Abkhazia in its favor.
“The authorities asked us to fill in some forms. We wrote in our names, address and the number of our passports. They told us this was connected with our pensions, although I have not reached a pension age yet. We filled in these forms, but I do not understand why they need it. We have never filled in this kind of forms before,” Nana Nachkepia, an IDP from Abkhazia, living in Tbilisi, told Civil Georgia.
Zurab Zhvania called on the opposition parties to unite against the ballot fraud and to prevent the authorities from using its “administrative leverages” for ballot rigging.