Georgian Parliament Speaker says USAID alongside ISFED involved in spreading false parallel vote tabulation of 2020 elections

Speaking about the falsification of the parallel vote tabulation results of the 2020 parliamentary elections, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said the ruling Georgian Dream party received explicit hints during the 2020 pre-election campaign that they would be pressured to relinquish power, regardless of the election results or the will of the people.

In his remarks during the presentation of the Parliament’s annual report, Papuashvili noted that four years later, the new US administration revealed that USAID had been used in other countries as a tool for destabilising governments.

“You may remember the campaign about term limits, lectures from foreign ambassadors on the benefits of coalition governments, and other subtle messages promoting political change”, the Speaker said.

The Speaker stressed that in the parliamentary elections held on October 31, 2020, the Georgian Dream secured a convincing victory, which “the opposition, consolidated around the United National Movement party, traditionally labeled as rigged”.

“We witnessed a weeks-long campaign, demonstrations, and protests at the Central Election Commission, all based on the falsified parallel vote tabulation results from the NGO International Society for Fair Elections And Democracy”, he continued.

“The 10th Convocation Parliament convened on December 11, 2020, and announced the formation of an investigative commission, which among other issues, would examine the falsification of the PVT results. That same day, ISFED - alarmed by the prospect of a parliamentary investigation - was forced to publicly admit its falsehood. Later, another admission followed: that ISFED’s donor, USAID, had also been involved in spreading the false results. It was the first time the Georgian public exposed what the new US administration would later confirm: that USAID had been used as a tool for destabilising legitimate governments and replacing popular democracy with externally-managed democracy”, Papuashvili concluded.