U.S. Official: Election Results do not Accurately Reflect Will of Georgian People

Deputy spokesman of the U.S. Department of State Adam Ereli said at a news briefing on November 20, while commenting on Georgian November 2 parliamentary election results, “what I can say now is that we are deeply disappointed in these results, and in Georgia’s leadership.”

“The results do not accurately reflect the will of the Georgian people, but instead reflect massive vote fraud in Adjara [Autonomous Republic] and other Georgian regions,” Adam Ereli said.

“Specifically, the parallel vote tally and exit polling conducted by reputable independent organizations differ significantly from the results released by the Central Election Commission [on November 20], and these discrepancies in our view, represent or reveal an extensive manipulation of the vote count.  I would say that we are in a regular dialogue on a senior level, both here and in Tbilisi, and we’ll be assessing next steps,” the U.S. official added.

When asked whether the United States considers Georgian government as illegitimate, because of manipulation of election results, Adam Ereli answered, “we’re assessing next steps.  We’ll put out a statement.  I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here of what we will and will not do.”