Vote rigging scheme is uncovered by police

Police found thousands of fake IDs which had been used for several previous elections during 2008-2012 in a ballot fraud scheme in favor of the United National Movement party.

Teimuraz Pataridze, the former head of the Department of Constitutional Security (DCS) in the Adjara region (Black Sea-side of Georgia), was arrested for producing and using fake identification documents.

"Regional units of DCS throughout the country were thoroughly studying voter lists, identifying politically passive citizens, and those who had left the country years ago and provided Pataridze with data of these citizens; this data was then included in fake IDs containing photos of DCS employees,The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia says.

According to the Ministry, the fake IDs were given to the employees of DCS which enabled them to engage in a ballot stuffing scheme. This allowed them to vote multiple times at several polling stations.

The investigation is ongoing to identify other organizers of the scheme.