Georgian Dream MP: Technology limits election-rigging speculation

The ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in the parliamentary election held on Saturday, securing a majority with 53.92% of the vote, according to data by the Central Election Commission.

However, Georgia’s opposition parties were quick to dispute the results and claim the election was “rigged.”

Answering the criticism from observers who reported election violations, including intimidation and interference, MP and chair of the EU integration committee Maka Botchorishvili argued the election process was fair and left limited space for speculation.

The ruling Georgian Dream party lawmaker, Botchorishvili said that “all conditions for competitiveness were met from Georgian authorities and from Georgia in general”, which allowed Georgian citizens the freedom to elect whoever they wanted.

“Every political party had the possibility to campaign, and the possibility to attract trust from Georgian citizens,” Botchorishvili added.

It was the first time that polling stations were equipped with electronic scanners at the ballot boxes, Botchorishvili said the technology was in place to safeguard election results and that “this electronic system was introduced in order to limit this space for speculations.”

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) deployed 529 observers across Georgia, including a delegation of 12 MEPs from the European Parliament. The observers were there to analyse the environment leading up to the election, including the monitoring of election campaign media coverage, and the procedures on  the election day itself.

Botchorishvili acknowledged the observers flagged several incidents but said concrete examples need to be presented in order to identify a potential problem at hand.

An EU future?

Moving forward, Botchorishvili said the ruling party wants to move forward on the European way “peacefully and with dignity.”

 “[We want] to implement what we promised to our citizens to move peacefully with dignity and with economic development and with better conditions for our citizens towards the European Union,” she added.

The European Union has previously frozen Georgia’s accession path because of several laws initiated by the ruling party, including the “foreign agent” rule, which the EU deemed incompatible with European values.

When asked about how Georgian Dream would improve its relationship with the EU, particularly in regards to these laws that were deemed incompatible, Botchorishvili said the law is “about transparency, and nothing else,” and that her party is ready to showcase that the law would not create any problems.

“The only objective for this legislation to inform Georgian society and to keep the political process transparent and to safeguard Georgia’s democratic development,” she said.

“It is absolutely important to keep stable democratic development in Georgia in order to ensure our European future. So transparency is one of the things that will help and not vice versa.”