Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has denied the requests of two Georgian pro-Western opposition groups to annul their parliamentary candidate lists.

On November 12, the coalitions Unity-UNM and Coalition for Change announced that they would ask Georgia’s election administration for permission to renounce their MP mandates, as they do not consider the parliament legitimate, and refuse to enter its 11th convocation.

“This parliament is illegitimate, so we consider participation in this parliament as complicity in an illegitimate parliament and illegitimate actions,” announced Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change. 

This latest move comes amid claims by Georgia’s opposition and pro-Western president that the country’s parliamentary elections on October 26 were rigged by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party to bag themselves a 54% majority and fourth term in power. 

The allegations are based on the huge discrepancy between independent exit polls and the official election results published by the CEC, as well as widespread reports of electoral violations and irregularities from local and international observers in the run up to and on polling day.

In response to the opposition groups’ request, Giorgi Santuriani, the head of the CEC’s legal department, stated that granting the appeal would be legally impossible, as mandates may only be appealed once they have first been confirmed at the inaugural parliamentary session. 

“Current legislation does not allow the cancellation of candidates registered on party lists until the newly elected deputies are notified of their powers. This applies both to appeals from parties and to individual requests. The Election Code offers no other regulation,” Santuriani explained.

Natia Mezvrishvili, one of the leaders of the For Georgia opposition coalition, which has also rejected GD’s victory as illegitimate but is yet to announce if it will enter parliament, accused the CEC of spreading “false information” and declared the commission's reasoning behind denying the appeal “legal nonsense”.