Parliamentary commission finds 'no significant shortcomings' in 2020 elections
Several opposition political parties still believe that the 2020 parliamentary elections were falsified in favour of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Significant shortcomings were not found in the parliamentary elections of October 31, 2020, the temporary parliamentary commission created to study the matter stated earlier today.
The Georgian parliament established the temporary commission earlier this year to investigate allegations of parliamentary election violations, which caused a six-month political standoff in the country and was largely solved following the EU-mediated agreement on April 19.
The main part of the opposition did not participate in the commission's activities. Former members of the pro-Russian Alliance of Patriots Pridon Injia and Davit Zilpimiani, who established the political party European Socialists were involved in the commission's work.
The temporary parliamentary commission worked for about 3 months and found that ‘the 2020 parliamentary elections were competitive and fundamental freedoms were respected.’
The resolution document of the parliamentary commission is planned to be approved at today’s session, which requires not less than 51 votes.
The majority of the oppositions do not attend the session due to distrust in the commission.
The commission selected 20 of the most problematic voting precincts out of 41, where cases of excess and deficiency of ballot papers were recorded.
As a result of comparing the data, the commission established that the difference between the official data and the commission’s findings were ‘miserably small.’
Chairman of the parliamentary temporary commission Givi Minakadze stated earlier today that no acts of falsification were found–‘only minor flaws.’
He also noted that a number of shortcomings were identified due to the pandemic and stressful environment, indifference to assigned duties and lack of competence, ‘which had no significant impact on the election results.’
Minakadze also said that the ‘incorrect parallel counting’ of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) escalated the situation in Georgia, damaged the country's reputation and tarnished the image of the organisation.
Vice-speaker of Parliament Archil Talakvadze responded to the recent resolution of the temporary parliamentary commission and noted that ‘the commission found that the election was not falsified.’
The accusation made by the opposition that the elections were falsified was not true and could not be substantiated,” said Talakvadze.
Several opposition political parties still believe that the 2020 parliamentary elections were falsified in favour of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Signatory parties of the EU-mediated agreement agreed that if the ruling party fails to get 43 per cent of the vote in the self-government elections of 2021, early parliamentary elections will be scheduled.