‘We will not accept the legitimacy of a stolen election’, says Georgian opposition leader

Tina Bokuchava: We have evidence of massive violations where, for example, the number of votes that the ‘Georgian Dream’ allegedly received exceeds the number of voters that were registered in a given precinct. We also had videos of ballot stuffing, of violence, of voter intimidation. This was a massive Russian style special operation through the use of hybrid instruments, including the electronic verification machines, to subvert the will of the people that have chosen a European future.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Did you accept that exit polls can be wrong? And in an age where people like Donald Trump also deny election results, you’re going to have to prove this in some way?
Tina Bokuchava: Absolutely. But we also have companies that have conducted exit polls for years in Georgia. And if you look at the results, the exit poll results have always tracked along with the results announced by the CEC. We’ve seen election falsifications in the past that have involved two, three, four, five per cent, but never just outright election fraud that is more than ten and twelve per cent.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So what are you going to do?
Tina Bokuchava: We had a huge rally. Thousands and tens of thousands of people showed up and we demanded new elections that would be conducted by an election administration composed of international actors – that can conduct a credible election process, rather than one that aims to subvert the free will of the Georgian people.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: But if that is denied, what’s the next step? Will it just become a stand-off of people in the streets?
Tina Bokuchava: We will not accept the legitimacy of a stolen election where there is fraud documented by political parties as well as civil society organisations and watchdogs.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Do you believe there’s a danger this will turn violent?
Tina Bokuchava: The Government has resorted to violence previously, including in the massive demonstrations that followed the adoption of a Kremlin-inspired, Russian-type agents law, where they declare us all as agents of foreign influence. When all we want for our country is a prosperous, peaceful European future. Rather than a captured state where one Russian made-billionaire is calling the shots – has captured all state institutions from the judiciary to parliament. Where rule of law is undermined, where the third president of Georgia is a political prisoner and where Georgia just simply does not have a shot at a prosperous future.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So what do you want the outside world to do now?
Tina Bokuchava: We believe that now, standing by the Georgian people and the Georgian state – and Georgia’s European future – does not mean negotiating with a government that subverts the will of its own people. But rather indeed defending the free choice of Georgians, which clearly is a European one.