The coalition of monitoring organizations, My Vote, is demanding the annulment of results from 189 election precincts. This was announced by the coalition's spokesperson, Londa Toloraia. According to Toloraia, “the primary scheme for large-scale election falsification has been identified,” supported by complaints from observers, eyewitness testimonies, and photo, video, and audio evidence.
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Londa Toloraia noted that other schemes, including the use of criminal groups to pressure voters, were implemented to rig the elections and secure the desired number of votes.
“On election day, we received over 900 reports from our observers across 1131 election precincts regarding violations of election procedures. In 196 precincts, where our representatives monitored the elections, significant violations were found to be repeated, continuous, and systematic, which significantly impacted the election results,” said Londa Toloraia.
According to her, evidence confirms that a pre-planned, organized fraud scheme was in operation, with preparations starting before the elections:
- The Central Election Commission changed the rule established by the Election Code, determining the deadline for conducting the lottery for registrar functions one week before the elections instead of on election day. This made it impossible for most monitoring organizations to observe the process.
- There were reports of the ruling party renting voters' ID cards or collecting and processing personal data through various means.
- On voting day, the registration desks at the polling stations were positioned against the wall, preventing observers from fully monitoring the verification process.
According to Londa Toloraia, the scheme for falsifying elections at polling stations on voting day was as follows:
- Some voters arriving at the polling station had a piece of paper with another person’s personal number written on it, which was placed in their passport or attached to their ID card. Voters were also able to vote using a photocopy of their ID card on their phones.
- Fraudulent voters had colluded with registrars at the polling stations who quickly entered the personal number from the paper into the verification machine, either not marking or making poor marks. The marking, which serves as an insurance mechanism against falsification during the verification process, was not carried out. According to Londa Tholoraya, in some cases, the marking fluid and the quality of the flashlights were inadequate; there were no traces of marking, or it was easily removed, and the flashlights were malfunctioning.
- Commission members and the chairperson categorically forbade observers from approaching the registrars’ desks. Observers faced physical removal from the area when they tried to approach the table.
“The observers from the so-called Gongo organization, who had three tasks, appeared as our allies in the process of falsifying the elections. In addition, the observers needed to be neutralized, along with representatives of the ruling party, while counterfeiters mobilized near the precincts were brought in. If necessary, chaos would be created in the area, allowing the registrar and the forger to conduct the verification process inconspicuously and deliver the ballot to the forger without interruption.
All of the above allowed the forger to vote with the received ballot and place it in either an electronic or non-electronic box. This rigging scheme does not cause the same imbalance seen in other carousel schemes that require the removal of ballots from the precinct.
Despite extremely limited oversight and the creation of a hostile environment through physical, verbal, and psychological abuse, as well as attempts at intimidation, observers were able to identify key trends in the scheme and document evidence that exposed this fraud and its scale.
Complaints regarding the invalidity of the results from 189 precincts in various electoral districts have been prepared and submitted to the District Election Commissions. The total number of voters in these precincts exceeds 300 000. Our lawyers continue to work on filing additional appeals to annul the results, and this number will therefore increase.
The evidence collected by the observation mission contains information about the crime of electoral fraud. Accordingly, we appeal to investigative agencies to commence an investigation into this electoral fraud,” said Londa Toloraia.