Georgia’s Parliament Speaker urges US Congress to investigate “interference” in 2020 elections instead of “judging” Gov’t

Georgia’s Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday called on the United States Congress to investigate alleged involvement of US representatives and state agencies in the release of “false” parallel vote tabulation results during the 2020 Georgian parliamentary elections “instead of judging the country and its people” during Congressional hearings.

Papuashvili’s press comments came ahead of a scheduled session in Congress later on Thursday, where Eka Gigauri, the Head of Transparency International Georgia, was expected to make comments. 

The Parliament Speaker claimed the “fake data”, released by the US-funded International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy non-governmental organisation during the vote-counting in the elections, had been “used as a pretext” by the domestic opposition to “incite unrest, demand extraordinary elections, and boycott parliamentary work”.

He also alleged Gigauri, who is critical of Government actions, would speak “against her country” in her address and said he hoped the Congress would “eventually investigate” what he called a “crucial issue” for the Georgian-American relations.  

The release of the [vote tabulation] results [by the ISFED] nearly pushed us to the brink of civil strife, serving as a pretext for rallies and violence from the opposition. The US Congress has the tools necessary to examine the role of the US Agency for International Development in spreading the false narratives. We now know that USAID representatives were aware that the PVT results were incorrect and concealed this information, even during private meetings [with the Georgian Government representatives]”, Papuashvili claimed. 

In his comments last week, the official argued that an investigation by the Congress into the matter would show “due appreciation of Georgians’ commitment to friendship with America” and highlighted the 2020 events had “damaged not only Georgian democracy but also our country’s reputation, marking the start of false narratives about a backsliding of Georgian democracy”.