Member Info for Jonathansxx

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Every important election in Georgia becomes a source of controversy and often a political crisis, as it is now, after the 2020 parliamentary elections. Since independence, no electoral system and administration has been established that would neither require revision after each election nor cause distrust.

Our election administration is built on a collegial principle with the assumption that, on the one hand, with balance and mutual control between the parties, and on the other hand, with the participation of independent professionals in the administration, it will be possible to hold credible and objective elections. In fact, it is difficult not to see that the existing system can not solve the problems related to trust and efficiency. These problems are caused by the systemic shortcomings of the current election administration, as well as the general nihilism in the country, the degradation of the electoral process and the often irresponsible positions of political parties. Good elections lead to many things, and many of them go beyond the competencies of the election administration.But without the transformation of the election administration, it will be impossible to create a qualitatively better electoral environment in our polarized and radicalized society.

Therefore, it is necessary not only to work on improving the existing system of the election administration, which from election to election shows that it is not working properly, but also to fundamentally rethink the arrangement of the election administration and build it on new principles. To this end, we have set up a panel of experts at the Center for Multiparty Democracy in Eastern Europe to work on a vision for a possible reform of the election administration. You can read the full document here, and below I will briefly tell you about the possible and necessary directions of the reform.

At least what are the main weaknesses of the existing administration model? Three important problems can be identified:

Control of political parties by the election administration, especially, as a rule, by the ruling party;
Inability of the election administration to fully and effectively implement its mandate;
Insufficient qualification and remuneration of election administration employees.
Party sabotage of democracy
The ostensibly democratic model of staffing the CEC actually provides for one-party control: the five candidates for the CEC chairmanship and membership are elected by the president, and they mean a majority in parliament, where the decisive word belongs to the parliamentary [ruling party]. The other 6 members are appointed by the political parties represented in the parliament in proportion to the votes received by them. As a result, we get a Central Election Commission where the majority are people elected by the ruling political group. The rest, the representatives of the opposition parties, are deprived of the real opportunity to participate in decision-making.

The President of Ukraine spoke by telephone with the President of the United States of America Joe Biden today, April 2.

"President Biden has assured me that Ukraine will not be left alone against Russian aggression," Zelensky said in a speech to the Ukrainian Rada.

The talks between the US and Ukrainian defense ministers took place yesterday, where the American side reaffirmed that "in case of escalation of Russian aggression, Washington will not leave Ukraine alone."

According to the Ukrainian side, the conversation between the ministers was initiated by Washington.

Russian Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin spoke about the position of the Russian side today, April 2. He said the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's statement on US assistance was "dangerous and encourages confrontation in the region."

Also today, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Russia could not abide by the ceasefire agreement in Donbas because it was not a party to the conflict. He blamed Kiev.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, on March 26, the Russian Armed Forces once again violated the ceasefire agreement and attacked the Ukrainian forces with such a large-caliber weapon, killing 4 Ukrainian soldiers and seriously injuring two others.

According to Kiev, the attack took place north of Donetsk, near the settlement of Shum.

The incident was responded to the same day by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who called on leaders involved in the Normandy peace format [Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany] to do everything possible to maintain the ceasefire agreement.

After the incident, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Ruslam Khomchak told parliament that Russia's actions were aggressive and detrimental to the country's security.

"The Russian armed forces are gradually increasing the number of armed forces on the Russian-Ukrainian border," Khomchak said.

Yesterday, April 1, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that "Russia's current escalation is systemic and the largest that has been observed in recent years." According to him, Russia's actions have brought the processes to a standstill, from which the only solution is diplomacy.

Russia increasing troops in Ukraine...

BBC News - Russian 'troop build-up' near Ukraine alarms Nato
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56616778

More on the Russian SVR statement .

https://eurasianet.org/russia-drops-info-bomb-into-georgias-political-crisis

Opposition view.
" Giga Bokeria, one of the leaders of European Georgia, says that the general demand of the opposition is to call early elections and to hold a plebiscite in the form of a compromise, where voters will be asked if they want new parliamentary elections.

Bokeria notes that this should be accompanied by the release of Nika Melia and Giorgi Rurua from prison, as well as the reform of the electoral system. One of the leaders of "European Georgia" says that now the main thing is "Ivanishvili to decide on Saakashvili's curse that he agrees to a plebiscite":

"The position of European Georgia and all parties, including the UNM, has been so far and it remains that we want early elections, the release of political prisoners and a package on the election administration, but as a compromise, of course, we will consider a plebiscite where the Georgian people will be asked Whether new elections.

Naturally, all this is happening against the background of the release of political prisoners, Nika Melia, Giorgi Rurua, and the adoption of the package that the opposition has already offered, I mean the changes in the system and the administration. "Now the most important thing is for Ivanishvili to decide on Saakashvili's fault that he agrees to a plebiscite, to release political prisoners, and then to accept defeat first in the plebiscite and then defeat in the elections," Giga Bokeria said.

Today, March 4, Mikheil Saakashvili released a video address saying that in his opinion, the opposition should not agree to the plebiscite model regarding the snap elections.

Saakashvili believes that there are several months left before the local elections and even if the government loses the plebiscite, they will still have several months to bribe and intimidate the voters."

"Badri Japaridze: Radical wing of Georgian Dream opposes political peace and agreement with opposition.
The 5th round of negotiations has reached a deadlock from the side of Georgian Dream. The opposition has not left the dialogue table. We are ready and waiting for the Georgian Dream to overcome the barriers within the party and common sense to win - said Badri Japaridze, Secretary General of "Lelo".

According to Japaridze, unfortunately, there is a radical wing in the Georgian Dream, which opposes the continuation of negotiations with the opposition, a political agreement and political peace in the country. Badri Japaridze hopes that the "Georgian Dream" will realize the severity of the crisis and return to the negotiating table.

"I hope that the Georgian Dream will take a step in favor of the citizens of Georgia and the negotiations will resume. For this, the Georgian Dream must decide the date of the early elections, or ask the citizens of Georgia whether they want early parliamentary elections, which should be conducted with fair election commission, with people who will never take liberty to do what we saw on October 31, 2020. The Georgian Dream needs to reconsider its approaches and realize that, given the challenges in the country, this parliament will not be able to function properly", - Badri Japaridze said."

Corrupt party = corrupt election.

"Transparency International Georgia publishes a study of the pre-election environment of the 2020 parliamentary elections, where it talks about the donors of 8 political objects and mentions the signs of alleged political corruption.

According to them, in many cases, people who donate to the Dream, then win tenders announced by the Dream and return the money with the help of administrative resources.

As it turned out, the ruling party's donor companies won tenders worth about GEL 68 million in 2020 (till Nov. 17), and these companies donated GEL 1.6 million in favor of the Georgian Dream during the same period.Especially noteworthy in this regard is G&K Technologist Ltd., which won tenders worth 17.2 million GEL during the year, and its owner Roman Abramishvili donated 60,000 GEL to" Georgian Dream "in February," the statement reads.

In total, the amount of such donations is up to 3 million, while the tender contracts concluded in the name of persons close to the donors are worth up to 70 million.

"They are donating money to the ruling party and we see that they are large contractors in public procurement. In 2020, such companies received tenders worth 70 million GEL, when they donated 2-3 million," said Levan Natroshvili, Transparency International Georgia Manager."

Election violations
A number of opposition groups currently boycotting the new parliament, the UNM, European Georgia, and Girchi among them, have pointed out since 11 December that the PVT monitoring would not reflect the scope of violations during October election.

Speaking to TV channel Formula on 14 December, European Georgia’s Sergi Kapanadze argued that elections were ‘rigged’ mainly through ballot box stuffing, voter carousels, and voter intimidation, which PVT-based monitoring would not detect.

On 4 November, over 25 local rights groups including ISFED, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, and Transparency International Georgia, called the 31 October vote ‘the least democratic and free among the elections held under the Georgian Dream government’.

Their joint statement identified scuffles outside the polling stations, harassment of voters and journalist, vote-buying, ‘unprecedented use’ of administrative resources, and breaches of voter secrecy among the recurring violations throughout 31 October.

Protests over ‘rigged elections’ continued for days after 31 October, culminating on 8 November with the police deploying water cannons against protesters outside the CEC office. Image: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.
Criticism both from watchdog groups and opposition parties grew even further after the Central Election Commission were later than usual in publishing the preliminary results of the 31 October vote, and for later rejecting most of the complaints related to imbalanced vote protocols.

These findings were reflected and mostly confirmed by the OSCE/ODIHR international observer mission.

Degnan, it's time to pull your finger out.Today 20:46

US appeases the dream as they repress the free media.

"Representatives of the critical media do not rule out that they will become the main target of the oligarch, after Nika Gvaramia and the "Mtavari Channel"

Journalist and TV presenter Inga Grigolia says that it is not ruled out that in parallel with the persecution of Nika Gvaramia, the authorities will resume the case against the founder of TV Pirveli and his father - Vato and Avtandil Tsereteli.

Nino Jangirashvili, director of Kavkasia TV, believes that Ivanishvili would be happy to shut down the "Mtavari Channel" and other critical media. According to her, Ivanishvili believes that he has won and now he is going to start repressions.

The third sector believes that the renewed persecution of Nika Gvaramia has a political message. According to them, the oligarch uses state agencies to punish critical media.

Opposition members say they will not be able to intimidate Nika Gvaramia with similar threats, and the "Mtavari Channel" will not stop even if Nika Gvaramia is arrested.

Recall, Nika Gvaramia wrote yesterday, December 12, that the authorities are planning to arrest him on New Year's Eve, and also said that he understood the good intentions of the ambassadors, but "Dream" turned them into brokers in the captive market.

Nika Gvaramia also said that he was not going to forgive anyone from the government for bringing his children's psyche to serious problems.

However, Nika Gvaramia stresses that he serves the West, but occasionally gets stabbed in the back, including by Kelly Degnan."

"Members of the public signed a "Manifesto of Reconciliation" demanding re-election.

Among the signatories are Shota Digmelashvili, one of the leaders of the "Shame" movement, Iva Chkonia, chairman of the Distributors' Association, Giorgi Kadagidze, former president of the National Bank, Khatuna Lagazidze, an analyst, Achiko Guledani, a musician, and others.

The manifesto says that the citizens will not accept the reality of the October 31 elections and will try to put pressure on the government through legal means to hold repeat elections in the country.

"On the 30th anniversary of the restoration of statehood, Georgia is facing the harshest reality:

Unemployment, economic misery and extreme poverty;
Corruption, nepotism, clanism;
Weakened state, enhanced crime;
Weakening Georgia's geopolitical role;
A judicial system subordinate to the government;
Law enforcement agencies serving party interests;
Facts of violation of fundamental human rights;
Failure with Russian propaganda and disinformation;
Against the background of these challenges, the public expected that the October 31, 2020 parliamentary elections would be an arena for the free expression of the will of the electorate. Which objectively reflected the current situation in Georgia and the redistribution of political forces. By doing so, we would have passed the vicious experience of one-party and one-party rule in the past, and a multi-party parliament would have ensured that the interests of each citizen were clearly protected.

Unfortunately, this did not happen and the ruling political team deprived the population of their fundamental, constitutional right to choose. It is clear that the Georgian Dream intends to stay in power indefinitely and will not back down.

We, the citizens of Georgia, are not going to retreat either. We will not reconcile with the twisted reality and will use all legal means provided by the Constitution to force the government to hold new, fair and free elections under public pressure. We will spare no effort to reach out to every citizen to reach out to the protest voice and share in this process.

We call on every fellow citizen to join our legal struggle and stand on the right side of history. We must all remember that we - the people - are the source of power, and it is we who must decide how we want to live in a state.

We support the efforts of the opposition political parties, call on them to maintain strong unity and to protect the will of the majority of Georgian voters by all peaceful and legal means.

We call on international organizations and Georgia's partners to take a clear, unequivocal stand in defense of Georgia's democratic development.

We call on the authorities to understand the criticality of the crisis created by them. "To understand that we can not and will not tolerate a collapsed state," the manifesto reads.

According to the authors of the document, any citizen can sign the manifesto at the following

Citizens demand a re-election..

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And it is ignored...
"According to Transparency International Georgia (TI), 92.8% of district courts upheld their claims in the October 31 elections and 100% in the Court of Appeals.

According to the organization, the courts demanded the annulment of the protocols of 42 precincts in 11 districts and the recount of votes, including 13.22.65 precincts in Marneuli, where, according to them, they demanded the complete annulment of precincts due to the existence of falsification video evidence.

According to them, the courts did not satisfy the request in 39 polling stations out of 42 appealed.

According to the organization, the court instructed the district commissions to recount the ballot papers in only 3 cases:
as a result of recounting the results of Khelvachauri 30.82.39 precincts, it turned out that one more ballot paper belonged to the Georgian Dream.
At 28.79.85 polling station in Batumi, it turned out that "Girch" had received 4 votes instead of 36.
Bolnisi District Court instructed the Marneuli District Election Commission to recount 13.22.65 precincts where there was evidence of multiple voting by one person, so Transparency International Georgia demanded the unconditional annulment of precinct results, as the results of this type of fraud could not be eliminated by counting. The district court decision was appealed and ultimately dismissed."

More evidence of rigging.
"Ivane Burduli, a former CEC official, links the registration of strangers in the apartment of voters with the Ministry of Justice. According to Burduli, electoral lists are processed by the Ministry of Justice and transferred to the CEC, which becomes a subject of election manipulation. He talked about it in the program "Guest of the Day” on Mtavari Channel.

"Too many people were heartbroken at these elections: when they discovered that a few dozen people were registered in their address, not just family members, it was done in the very last minute so that the voter could no longer respond," - Ivane Burduli said.

Ivane Burduli does not name specific persons in the Ministry of Justice, but believes that the whole system is involved in the process.

According to Ivane Burduli, the lists sent to the CEC from the Ministry of Justice are then provided to the precinct election commissions. There are two types - wall and desk - lists. Wall lists at polling stations are posted one month before election day, and desk lists, according to the new election change, are submitted to the commission 12 hours in advance, which will no longer allows checking them.

The discrepancy between the desk lists and the wall lists, according to Ivane Burduli, allows for manipulation.

Let us remind you that Ivane Burduli was a senior specialist of the Department for Relations with Election Commissions at the CEC and the coordinator of 5 districts. He has resigned today, November 6, due to large-scale election fraud."