NGO: Legitimacy of Georgian presidential elections may be under question

The Georgian government may be printing fake ID cards in order to falsify the results of the second round of presidential elections in favour of government-supported candidate Salome Zourabichvili, says three of the most influential NGOs in Georgia.

The NGOs, Transparency International, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and Free Elections held a press conference at which they stated that an employee of the Agency for the Development of State Services got in touch with them and informed them of the ID printing process.

“Our source says that around five IDs will be printed per person – the photo will be the same, but other data will be changed. Then, lists reflecting this altered data will be distributed to voting districts,” Georgian Young Lawyers Association member Irma Pavliashvili said.

The source also allegedly said that the process is being supervised by the head of the Agency for the Development of State Services, Soso Giorgadze.

The NGOs say that such criminal activity may put the legitimacy of the votes into question, and have called on the prosecutor’s office to look into the matter.

Giorgadze himself has called the allegations “absurd” and called on the NGOs to present proof.