EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Trash Talking: Georgian NGO Activist Claims to Find Proof of Electoral Fraud in CEC Garbage Bin

EURASIA INSIGHT

TRASH TALKING: GEORGIAN NGO ACTIVIST CLAIMS TO FIND PROOF OF ELECTORAL FRAUD IN CEC GARBAGE BIN
Molly Corso 1/11/08

Georgian opposition leaders are seizing on the alleged discovery January 11 of valid presidential election ballots in the trash outside of Central Election Commission (CEC) headquarters as supposed proof of fraud in the vote-counting process. While officials adamantly deny any wrongdoing, the announcement has energized opposition plans to hold a mass demonstration on January 13.

According to human rights activist Nana Kakabadze, students from the "Equal Rights" NGO accidentally "found" dozens of stamped, unsealed red envelopes allegedly containing valid voter ballots from various election precincts. Red envelopes were used to identify the ballots filled out by same-day registered voters in the January 5 presidential election. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The measure was one of many that the CEC implemented to help prevent fraud.

Kakabadze, together with other NGO representatives, was protesting in front of the CEC at 1 pm on January 10. She told EurasiaNet that around 50-60 protestors gathered at the building and noticed "a lot" of yellow trucks standing on the main road, ready to pick up trash. "No one was paying any attention," she said, noting that when the students told her that they found "something," she didn’t think anything of it. "I thought they [the envelopes] were empty. � If we had known they were full we would have taken more."

Inside the envelope shown to EurasiaNet was a piece of paper that appeared to be a ballot, indicating one vote for Badri Patarkatsishvili.

CEC chief Levan Tarkhnishvili denied that any ballots were thrown away. According to him, while trash was indeed picked up at CEC headquarters on January 10, it did not include any ballots. "The ballot paper is an official document and no one can steal, throw away or destroy it," he told EurasiaNet, adding that Kakabadze should have immediately reported what she found to authorities. "[I]t is criminal to throw away the ballot papers � so if they found something they have to declare it to the police, and the police have to subsequently start an investigation."

Kakabadze said she was "scared" to go to the police or to the CEC, since they would have taken the original documents from her. She did take an example to the state ombudsman, Solzar Subari. According to the ombudsman’s press office, Subari was "convinced" that the ballots were valid and has requested an investigation into why they were being thrown away.

Tarkhnishvili revealed that he had already initiated an investigation through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Ironically, if it is determined that the found ballots are genuine, they will be declared invalid. The CEC chief did not exclude the possibility that the ballots had been planted by opposition supporters desperate to prevent Mikheil Saakashvili’s re-election. "Let’s assume they [the ballots] are official � it is a legitimate question mark where they [the opposition activists] found [them], under what circumstances? When? Who? And so on and so forth," he said. "Maybe they just stole them from the Central Election Commission."

Tarkhnishvili and the CEC has been in the spotlight since the January 5 vote, as local � and international � election monitors and opposition parties have voiced concern about the tabulation process. The United Public Movement, an alliance of nine opposition parties supporting one candidate � Levan Gachechiladze � has been the most vocal critic of the CEC’s conduct. According to them, forged protocols are being used to boost the number of votes received by Saakashvili to guarantee his win in the first round.
Together with most of the country’s opposition parties � including the protest-shy New Rights party � the opposition coalition is gearing up for a street protest on January 13.

Although official results will not be announced until January 13, Saakashvili is said to be leading with over 50 percent of the vote. Gachechiladze is in a distant second with less than 30 percent. According to Georgian election law, if no candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote during the first round of voting, the election will be decided by a run-off within two weeks.

Prior to the alleged discovery of improperly discarded provisional ballots, local or international observers had refrained from supporting the opposition coalition’s fraud allegations. On January 8, the international observer mission from the OSCE/ODHIR announced that the election met democratic standards although there were some "concerns" over voter tabulation. The United States and other countries have already congratulated Saakashvili on his victory in an election that met "democratic standards."

Georgian opposition leaders have been very critical of the international community’s support for the election. Davit Gamkrelidze, a contender in the race and the leader of the New Rights Party, said the US appraisal of the election had sullied its image as a beacon of democracy. "This is cynical when you are telling the Georgian people that the January 5 election was held in accordance to the democratic standards," Gamkrelidze said during the January 10 broadcast of the political talk show Primetime on Rustavi 2. "By doing so, the United States has undermined its reputation and questioned [Georgian public’s] attitude towards the United States."

A German newspaper, Frankfurter Rundschau, quoted Dieter Boden, the chief of the OSCE observer mission in Georgia, as saying there were "crude" violations during the counting process. The OSCE has denied the report, saying that Boden was not stating anything beyond what was already contained in the organization’s official statement.

In addition, a local monitoring NGO, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), spoke up January 11 against the voting process. According to Giorgi Chkheidze, the head of GYLA, their monitors have detected "discrepancies" between the official protocols they received from the precincts and the District Election Commission’s (DEC) protocols. Chkheidze also noted that the DEC has turned down several of the 203 complaints GYLA filed with the commission.

Officials have shrugged off concerns about the election results. Tarkhnishvili, for instance, downplayed Chkheidze’s accusations, characterizing the GYLA as not "fully objective."

"[W]e should take into account that when they filed the complaint, they � became the interested party. So their statement cannot be fully objective � and my statement too because I am an interested party too," he said, noting that "the majority" of their complaints were discussed. "So the only place where the discussion can be resolved is in court." Kakha Kukava, a MP and member of the opposition coalition, said it will take another "four to five days" for opposition complaints to make it through the court system.

Editor�s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance journalist based in Tbilisi.

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