"When a member of the Georgian Dream council participates in this, it is inconceivable that he is not accountable to the people who require such video footage," The executive secretary of the ruling party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, described the illegal stuffing of ballots in the 69th election precinct of Marneuli as a "staged spectacle" and a "provocation," linking the incident to the United National Movement.
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"A few days ago, I held a briefing regarding the expected provocations. One of the points I communicated to the public at that time was that there were rumors circulating from the National Movement about their intention to bribe people to release the footage.
The scheme was such that they needed to bribe someone within the ranks of Georgian Dream to whom they would pay money, who would then either convince someone else or do it himself. He would either throw or slip the ballots into the ballot box or the electronic machine, which would then be retrieved by someone from the National Movement,” Mdinaradze stated during the briefing at the Georgian Dream office.
According to Mdinaradze, an investigation is underway regarding this matter, and if the circulated footage is genuine, any individual involved in this "scheme" will be "severely punished."
"It is inconceivable that someone would stand in front of the cameras, shoot video from half a meter away, and throw ballots like that. It is specially staged. Unfortunately, if this footage is real and recent, a deputy from Georgian Dream is participating at the polling station. I personally believe that he is involved in a plan to disrupt the country, so that these images are distributed and then questions of legitimacy arise. Everyone must cease their provocations. Any involvement of our people, our compromised individuals, will be met with severe punishment, and any act of provocation will also be severely punished. This is the state's obligation," Mamuka Mdinaradze asserted.
An observer from My Vote recorded a video of the illegal activity in the 69th election precinct of Marneuli, after which, according to the monitoring mission, he was physically assaulted and expelled from the precinct. One of the men seen in the circulated video, who was handling the ballots in the box, is Rovshan Iskandarov, the deputy chairman of the Sakrebulo and a member of Georgian Dream. He was present in the 69th district as a party representative.
Voting in District 69 was suspended after ballots were illegally stuffed. The results from this district are likely to be invalidated. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an investigation into the incident under Article 1643 of the Criminal Code, which pertains to election fraud. The crime is punishable by imprisonment for up to two years.
