Ruling party official claims “deliberate campaign” by election monitors aiming at “preparing” public, int’l observers to “misjudge elections”

Givi Mikanadze, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday claimed a “deliberate campaign” by the “so-called unbiased monitoring organisations” was aiming to “prepare” the domestic public and international observers to “misjudge” the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.

Mikanadze alleged it was “becoming increasingly clear that the primary agenda of the domestic radical opposition”, their “affiliated” monitoring organisations and media outlets was to “create false perceptions” among the public and international partners by “resorting to all forms of manipulation”.

He also claimed the monitoring organisations were “ignoring pre-election violations” against the ruling party in their reports, and further pointed out the development was “strengthening the ruling team’s belief” that a “campaign” was underway to influence the public and international observer opinions before the elections.

In response, the ruling team is continuing its peaceful pre-election campaign and maintaining constant communication with international observer organisations”, he continued.

In comments on alleged foreign interference ahead of the elections, Mikanadze singled out actions of Michael Roth, the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the German Bundestag, social media messages by the United States Embassy in Tbilisi and statements of Paweł Herczyński, the Ambassador of the European Union to the country.

On October 1, Michael Roth published information on how Georgian citizens living abroad can register to vote in the elections. He made public the contact information of two persons who, according to him, will help Georgian citizens in the registration procedure, which is clearly foreign interference in pre-election processes”, the Parliament official claimed.

He further noted that social media posts made on Facebook by the US Embassy with messages that said “democracies do not prohibit oppositions”, “countries cannot develop in isolation”, “isolation of Georgia from the West is against the interests of its people” were “political in nature” and reflected a “position against the ruling team”.

He also noted comments by Herczyński, who on October 4 said campaign billboards of the Georgian Dream party that included images from the war in Ukraine to contrast them with Georgia’s “peaceful environment” under the current authorities were “shameful, shocking and disgusting”.