Justice Ministry: NGO assertions that fake IDs are being printed before elections are absurd, rumours

Head of the Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia Soso Giorgadze says NGO allegations that fake ID documents are being printed to engineer the upcoming presidential elections are “absurd and invented.”

Giorgadze stated that the NGO supposition is  “theoretically unimaginable.”

Several NGOs held a briefing at the office of the Young Lawyers’ Association of Georgia in the afternoon, where they stated that they had received information from a source employed at the Service Development Agency that the government is taking steps to engineer the presidential elections.

The NGOs were not able to provide any evidence, only cited the source saying that ID cards are being printed for one and the same individual for him/her to vote several times for the ruling party endorsed independent presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili.

The NGOs stated that based on the source the process is headed by Giorgadze and the head of the Internal Audit Department of the same agency Bezhan Obagaidze.

The source says that in the last week a special meeting was held in the agency which concerned the printing of IDs. The IDs will have the same photo, but different personal information. The information would be reflected on certain election lists of particular election districts, where the individuals will vote several times,” the NGOs said and appealed to law enforcement to investigate the claim.

They also said that the heads of local branches of the agency, who “are not reliable” for the leadership of the agency, have been sent on business trips and have been replaced by people they trust.

The NGOs named the head of Tsalenjikha territorial entity of the agency who has been sent to such a trip for “not to hinder the printing process.”

This is absurd and an abuse of each employee of the agency. There are only three centres in Georgia where IDs are printed: in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi.  On the territories mentioned by the NGOs, ID documents have never been printed,” Giorgadze said.

Giorgadze stated that he will appeal to have the accusations investigated.

The Prosecutor's Office has announced that the investigation has been launched and the issue will be studied in the shortest possible time.