Judge Vladimer Khuchua of the Tetritskaro municipality, who confirmed that the secrecy of the ballot had been violated in the October 26 elections, thus invalidating the results of 30 polling stations, has become the subject of a discrediting campaign by Georgian Dream-affiliated media, anonymous social media pages and individuals, according to the election watchdog International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED).
“Shortly after the announcement of the court’s decision, discrediting messages against the judge began to spread on the social media platforms Facebook and TikTok,” ISFED says. The watchdog notes that the campaign was orchestrated by pro-government media outlets: Imedi, Info9, Newshub, POSTV; anonymous anti-opposition pages and accounts, as well as pro-government actors and pro-government so-called experts. “It is noteworthy that the posts were spread at short intervals with identical messages,” the watchdog says.
Judge Vladimer Khuchua ruled in favor of complaints filed by another watchdog, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), and confirmed that the secrecy of the ballot had been violated in the 2024 parliamentary election because the ballot paper was so thin that it was possible to see on the other side of the paper who the person had voted for.
Shortly after Kuchua’s decision was announced, President Salome Zurabishvili responded by writing: “One judge dared to acknowledge that the electronic machines did breach voting confidentiality. 30 precincts have been canceled, 2200 are concerned … and the legitimacy of the elections!!!”
ISFED notes that the discrediting campaign against the Vladimer Khuchua accused him of bias in favor of the opposition focusing on the fact that his wife is an opposition supporter. “The pro-government actors call Khuchua’s wife “the activist of the radical opposition” and note that Khuchua made the decision under her influence,” ISFED says providing the relevant screenshots of posts by actors such as the main pro-government mouthpiece TV Imedi and the propagandist pro-government POSTV below:
The pro-government Imedi news on Facebook reads: “The first-instance judge Vladimer Khuchua has annulled the results of several districts. Khuchua’s wife, Elza Gurgenidze, is a radical opposition activist.”
A pro-government POSTV post says: “The wife from the protest. The husband from the courtroom. The family of Khuchua/Gurgenidze in the service of the radical opposition.”
ISFED also cites other similar social media posts by several GD-affiliated anonymous pages and individuals.
In addition, such messages were also spread by the anti-opposition movement, such as the GD offshoot United Neutral Georgia, and by individuals claiming to be experts. Vato Shakarishvili, the leader of United Neutral Georgia, even accused the West of influencing the judge’s decision.
“Some of the posts contained hate speech. Among them were sexist and abusive messages. The main focus of the shared post was that the woman had influenced the decision of the judge of the Tetritskaro municipality. At the same time, the media outlet POSTV shared a homophobic post about Khuchua’s family,” ISFED says, citing relevant screenshots of the posts.
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