Speaker of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili responded to President Salome Zourabichvili's statement about organizing a "coordination platform" at the Orbeliani Palace on election day. Plans to establish an election headquarters within the presidential administration building would constitute a violation of the law, Papuashvili says.
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"Setting everything else aside, this is the use of administrative resources, as the building and logistical resources are being used for election purposes. He also stated that he intends to celebrate the victory of his faction, as it concerns him. Imagine if I set up an election headquarters for Georgian Dream in Parliament, in the Rustaveli Hall, and we sat in front of a large screen with Georgian Dream representatives counting who got how many votes, and so on. Or if the Prime Minister created an election headquarters for Georgian Dream in the government administration with the exact same aesthetics as an election headquarters. Imagine how these so-called living non-governmental organizations and observers would react to that," said Shalva Papuashvili during a briefing held at the Georgian Dream office.
The chairman of the parliament and one of the leaders of the ruling party used the occasion to attack monitoring organizations. According to him, they "cover up" election violations committed by the opposition.
"Did you hear anything from them about this at all? Administrative resources are openly used in broad daylight, and violations occur. This is also further proof that non-governmental organizations - something we’ve said many times - spread false information and accusations about Georgian Dream in their reports and directly cover up violations by the opposition," Papuashvili stated.
The inter-departmental commission established for the elections, chaired by Minister of Justice Rati Bregadze, also raised concerns regarding Salome Zourabichvili. According to Bregadze, a representative of the president's administration was summoned to today’s session of the commission.
"When it is said that certain political forces should jointly celebrate their victory in an administrative body, this may indeed suggest violations of electoral law. In this regard, we asked the representative of the administration to attend. However, today, the representative of the President of Georgia’s administration did not attend the session of the commission, which is quite disappointing. A written explanation was provided, but it was not deemed satisfactory by the commission. This further demonstrates that the president is not inclined to properly cooperate on election issues," said Rati Bregadze. He urged the representatives of the president’s administration to appear at the next session of the commission to provide clarification.
Salome Zourabichvili announced at a briefing on October 7 that on October 26, the day of the parliamentary elections, a coordination platform would be organized at the Orbeliani Palace to monitor everything that happens on that day. According to the president, they will celebrate the victory together.
