On October 30, the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office reported that it had opened an investigation into the alleged rigging of the parliamentary elections on the basis of the address of the CEC under Article 164 (Interference with the work of election or referendum commissions) of the Criminal Code. It also noted that Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili was summoned for questioning on October 31 on the basis of the CEC’s statement and information disseminated online indicating that she had evidence of fraud.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia will carry out all necessary investigative and procedural actions, as indicated in the directive of the CEC, in order to examine the facts reported by the President of Georgia, individual political parties, and representatives of observer missions. Among them, within the framework of the investigation, all those who may have information related to the alleged criminal act will be questioned,” reads the Prosecutor’s statement.
The Office also announced that law enforcement agencies are already actively conducting a number of criminal investigations into the particular violations identified during the pre-election period and on election day. “The Prosecutor’s Office will regularly inform the public of the results of the investigations.”
The Central Election Commission announced on October 29 its decision to ask the Prosecutor’s Office for an investigation into the “unfounded accusations” the CEC is facing after the announcement of the election results, saying that despite the OSCE/ODIHR also assessing the elections “positively” and the work of the CEC “at the highest level, ” and an American auditing company “not finding any flaws” in the technology used, the Georgian President and some political parties are still “attacking and baselessly criticizing” the work of the CEC in an attempt to “cause reputational damage” to the institution.
The CEC stated that it was considering the complaints it had received, but that the allegations being spread required “a complex and objective investigation,” which was not within the CEC’s purview. “On the basis of the above, we appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia to open and conduct an investigation into the above statements. For our part, we express our readiness to cooperate with the investigation and to provide the institution with interesting and necessary information for the investigation,” the statement concludes.
Earlier, on October 28 the Deputy Chair of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called for the the arrest of President Salome Zurabishvili on his Twitter (X) account: “The puppet president of Georgia refused to accept the election and went against the Constitution by calling for a coup. The standard practice in such cases is removal from office and arrest.”
Also Read:
- 29/10/2024 – Int’l Watchdog Detects Signs of Alleged Wide-Scale Elections Rigging
- 28/10/2024 – Georgian Opposition, Observers Collect Evidence to Reveal Alleged Vote Fraud Scheme
- 28/10/2024 – Observer Mission Talks of Main Scheme of Large-Scale Election Fraud, Seeks Annulment of Results from 189 Polling Stations
- 27/10/2024 – BREAKING: President Zurabishvili Rejects Election Results