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Hunger Strikes Protesting against Election Falsification in Gardabani

October 9, 2012

Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli

 Members of the coalition Georgian Dream are demanding justice in front of the Gardabani district administration building. This is the inscription on the banner behind which there are two tents pitched.

Four members of the coalition in Gardabani have been on hunger strike in small tents for six days already.

Members of Georgian Dream Takhir Shaverdov, Davit Bagaev, Zaza Banetishvili and Zura Bitashvili believe that they can make changes in Gardabani by going on hunger strike.

Davit Bagaev, a 46 year-old veteran, who has seen three wars, stated that the elections were falsified by the employees of the very department in front of which he, and others sharing the same opinions as him, are on hunger strike.

“They falsified the elections in almost every village. The employees of the district administration, high-officials and common citizens were involved in forgery. The same women entered several polling stations dressed in one outfit in the morning and a different one in the afternoon. They were also holding different identification documents the second time. They used many other methods like this to falsify the elections”, - Bagaev stated.

Another activist, Takhir Shaverdov, told us about tendencies in police activity. He stated that the National Movement managed to intimidate probationers.

“70% of youths in Gardabani have a suspended sentence. They arrest these people without any reason and then they are able to put pressure on them. They are threatening some of these people with returning them to prison and threatening others in different ways.

By means of this hunger strike we are trying to stop the illegality that is happening in Gardabani. We want the election results in  a range of polling stations to be checked and the complaints of our members to be taken into consideration”, - Takhir Shaverdov added.

Another reason for the hunger strike of Georgian Dream Gardabani staff members is the election held in Vaziani military base.  Soldiers from different regions of Georgia voted in the favor of Gardabani majoriatrian candidate too in the above-mentioned military base.

According to the people on hunger strike, so-called “unregistered people” were not able to take part in the elections in Gardabani. “One polling station was arranged for “unregistered people” in Gardabani municipality in Gardabani. People living far from the centre could not manage to travel tens of kilometers and vote in the polling station. Violations like these were everywhere, that is why we got unfair results”, - Takhir Shaverdov added.

According to the data of the Central Election Commission, National Movement received 55.5% and Georgian Dream received 41.29% of votes by proportional list in Gardabani municipality. The results in majoritarian elections were like this:  Giorgi Pekrishvili,the majoritarian candidate of National Movement, received 57.26% and Mamauka Areshidze,the majoritarian candidate of Georgian Dream, received 40.4% of votes.

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