Georgian opposition politicians have accused the country’s election watchdog of covering up widespread fraud by the victorious ruling Georgian Dream party in last weekend’s general election.

Natia Mezvrishvili, deputy chairwoman of the For Georgia party, has charged the Central Election Commission (CEC), which has been captured by the ruling party, of deliberately tampering with voting databases. 

“According to the information available to us, the databases on the CEC servers are being falsified, and the information on the electronic devices is being deleted,” Mezvrishvili declared at a press conference. 

She called for judicial intervention to safeguard the integrity of voting records, arguing that each passing day increases “the risk of the destruction of vital evidence”.

Mezvrishvili directly accused Georgian Dream of orchestrating the alleged data manipulation to obstruct investigations into potential electoral fraud. She claims that the falsification of CEC databases and the deletion of information stored on electronic devices is actively underway, compromising the electorate’s right to fair and transparent elections. The official election result differed markedly from exit polls conducted by independent polling agencies.

Mezvrishvili stressed that immediate legal steps are essential to prevent Georgian Dream from concealing evidence that could otherwise form the basis of an independent international review.

Despite appeals from Giorgi Gakharia, founder of For Georgia, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has yet to respond. Gakharia has called for a neutral and secure system where each voter could confirm whether they participated in the election, along with details such as their voting precinct and time. 

“We demanded that the entire base of 2,076,791 voters who came to the elections on October 26, 2024, be transferred to a neutral, objective platform,” Gakharia said. “Each voter should be able to individually verify the following data: whether they participated in the election, at which precinct, and at what time they voted. Today the CEC came out and said that this violates personal data and the law. I would like to remind the CEC that no one is asking for the bases to be made public; it is about the voter's confirmation and protection of the fact of voting.”

Gakharia has also pushed for complete transparency from the CEC about its contract with Smartmatic, the company managing Georgia’s electronic voting system. He raised concerns over whether this contract includes robust provisions for data security and retention, given the mounting international attention on the integrity of Georgia’s election. 

Gakharia warned, “We do not know how the contract with Smartmatic is signed and how long this information will be stored. Maybe in 10 days or 1 month, this information will become unavailable to us.”

The CEC, however, cited privacy and data protection laws as reasons for withholding these details. Gakharia countered by proposing that data verification could still be conducted securely, without compromising personal information, through a protected and neutral platform accessible only to individual voters.

Gakharia emphasised the broader implications of the CEC’s decision, warning that failure to act would deepen the nation’s political crisis. 

“We are trying to somehow get the country out of the crisis where [Georgian Dream]  brought it, in such a way that our European perspective and our democratic development perspective are minimally damaged and we save what is left,” Gakharia said.

The potential loss of vital voting records could not only impact any future inquiry but also torpedo the country’s aspirations of accession to the EU. 

International pressure is mounting for an independent, neutral investigation into the alleged electoral misconduct. So far only nine countries worldwide have recognised the results as legitimate.

Josep Borrell,  High Representative of the EU, has emphasised the importance of such an investigation for Georgia’s hopes of beginning EU accession negotiations. The EU ambassador to Georgia this week confirmed that Georgia’s hopes of beginning negotiations are now on hold until the government demonstrates it shares EU values.