Georgia: independent vote recount improves position of ruling party

Georgian organization International Society for Fair Elections And Democracy (ISFED) has revised its independent vote counting report after the recent parliamentary elections in Georgia.

According to the new data, the ruling Georgian Dream party received two per cent more votes.

Initially, ISFED said that Georgian Dream received only 45.8% of the vote in the parliamentary elections on October 31, 2020, according to the proportional system, while the Central Election Commission named the figure as 48.22 percent.

The new ISFED data on the ruling party is much closer to the official – 47.6%.

The united opposition of Georgia has declared the elections rigged and demands a new vote. The eight parties that entered parliament have renounced their MP seats. The authorities, in turn, insist that the elections were free. Foreign diplomats and international organizations unanimously call on the Georgian opposition to start working in parliament.

The ruling party received 48 percent of the vote on a proportional basis and won both rounds in all 30 majoritarian constituencies. As a result, Georgian Dream won 90 seats in the 150-seat parliament. On December 11, the first meeting of the new parliament was held, which was attended only by MPs from the ruling party.

ISFED attributed the changes to an initial error in the counting formula, which took into account the total number of ballots printed, including those that were later invalidated.

The opposition believes that the authorities knew about this mistake, because they were illegally monitoring the actions of ISFED. “That is why they suggested ISFED double-check their data – they were confident in the results,” said Giga Bokeria, leader of European Georgia.

“Former speaker Kobakhidze has publicly stated: if the ISFED conclusions confirm the official results, the opposition will recognize the elections. And if they do not confirm it, we will hold new elections. They knew the result in advance and set a trap for us,” Bokeria said.

• The united opposition has not yet commented on its further actions in light of the new data.
• The new parliament of Georgia begins work. It will be one-party
• “The opposition in Georgia announced a boycott – as if we are watching the same film again”

Overall, the error rate was 0.7%. Minor changes in percentages also took place for other parties that got into parliament.

According to the ISFED, the new data from the independent counting of votes would not have influenced the distribution of mandates in any way if accepted by the authorities.

Comparison: what the distribution of votes looks like according to the data of ISFED and the Central Election Commission: