Georgia to run partial recount amid claims of election fraud

Ballots in five randomly selected polling stations in each of Georgia’s 84 electoral districts will be recounted.

Georgia will carry out a partial recount of ballots after claims of fraud in Saturday’s parliamentary elections.

The Central Election Commission said on Tuesday that it will conduct a recount at a small number of randomly selected polling stations. Huge rallies and international concern have been sparked by opposition claims that the vote, which delivered a landslide win for the ruling Georgian Dream party, was rigged.

The government has dismissed accusations of fraud and the electoral commission has called the vote free and fair. However, it announced that it will now recount the ballots in five randomly selected polling stations in each of Georgia’s 84 electoral districts.

The recount will involve about 14 percent of polling stations. Election monitors have reported irregularities at more than one-third of polling stations.

The official results released on Sunday showed that Georgian Dream, which is accused of pulling the country back into Russia’s sphere of influence, won nearly 54 percent of the vote.

After opposition parties and pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili alleged the results were rigged, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Monday night.

“To ensure transparency, all authorised representatives are invited to observe the ballot recount process,” the commission said in a statement.

“The polling stations have already been identified through casting the lots, and the results of the revealed election precincts will undergo a recount process,” it added.

Russia has been accused of meddling in the vote. Moscow reiterated its denial on Tuesday, insisting that the Kremlin is not involved in Georgia’s domestic affairs.

The European Union, NATO and the United States have demanded a full investigation into reports of vote buying, voter intimidation and ballot stuffing raised by monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other independent bodies.

My Vote, a Georgian monitoring coalition, said it found evidence of “large-scale election fraud” assessed through photographs, videos and witness testimonies from its observers.

It said it had logged more than 900 reports of voting irregularities at more than a third of polling stations across the country.

The official results showed Georgian Dream won 1.12 million votes, 335,000 more than the four main opposition parties combined.

Georgian Dream has promised to continue the country’s push towards EU membership. However, Georgia has been rocked recently by huge protests as the ruling party has pushed through legislation that critics said is clearly influenced by Moscow.

That has prompted the EU to halt the membership process due to concerns over the rule of law after the ruling party has also pledged to “reset” ties with Russia.