“Greetings, captains.[…] It is crucial that they keep us posted as they bring in the people that they have on their lists. If we don’t have that information, we might be late to react and that will be the end of us,” says an excerpt from an audio recording by Mr. Beno Gegechkori, a representative of the ruling party’s Election Service of Regional Department.
“You were the captain,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze, to a young woman (Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili).
“Was voters’ personal information processed and shared?” – the Studio Monitori’s reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini asks MP from the Georgian Dream (GD), Ms. Rima Beradze.
“No, nothing of the kind,” answers Ms. Beradze.
Georgian Dream’s secret network for total control of Georgian voters.
“We were checking off the names of those, who showed up and then passed this information to the IT group and they typed it in,” answers Ms. Salome Razmadze.
“Who gave you the lists?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“The headquarters,” answers Ms. Salome Razmadze.
“You were instructed to put everyone’s names on the list, regardless of whose supporters they were, correct?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili a woman on the phone.
“Yes, yes,” answers the woman.
“Whose personal details were provided to me?” – asks Mr. Beno Gegechkori, the representative of the ruling party’s Election Service of Regional Department.
“Of the voters, who showed up at the polling stations,” says the Studio Monitori’s reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“It’s not true. You are lying,” says Mr. Gegechkori.
“This is a massive scheme for rigging elections,” says Mr. Sandro Baramidze, the Human Rights and Justice Program Manager at the Transparency International Georgia.
The GD’s secret network for election control.
Studio Monitori obtained information on Georgian Dream’s secret scheme of voter control that was put into action during October 26 elections.
A source gave us files from the Chugureti District that show that Georgian Dream had call centers operating in the vicinity of every polling station in the district.
“This is the office of the Georgian Dream’s Chugureti branch. According to the document provided to us by our source, this office was managing all of the so-called call centers that were set up near each voting precinct in the Chugureti District. This office was then feeding to Georgian Dream’s head office updates with full details of voters who showed up at the polling places,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Greeting, friends, captains. You are very good at typing in the data. I’d like to thank you all for your performance because we have no delays whatsoever,” excerpt from the audio recording by Mr. Beno Gegechkori, the representative of the ruling party’s Election Service of Regional Department.
“Set up mostly in private apartments, there were 50 call centers operating in the proximity of polling stations of the Chugureti Election District, which had a total of 41 polling stations. Under the supervision of the captains, two telephone operators and one computer operator worked at every call center,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Now we’ll try to get some answers from the call center operators first,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
On October 26, the day of parliamentary election, voting precinct 6 was opened in the school of arts located at 29 Nino Chkheidze Street. Just 400 meters away, at 24 Bukhaidze Street, Georgian Dream set up one of its call centers. A nearby resident Salome Razmadze was hired to work as a telephone operator there. Wearing a hidden camera, we went to her home and introduced ourselves as representatives of Georgian Dream’s monitoring service.
“You were at the call center located at 24 Bukhaidze Street. Ms. Mariam Gulbani was your captain. And you were the telephone operator, correct?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, quite right,” answers Ms. Salome Razmadze.
“How many people did you communicate with from those working at the polling station? – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“At the polling station? You mean the responsible persons? I personally had seven individuals. We would call them and then checked off on the list the names of those who had voted. We had their names, surnames, personal numbers and so forth on the list. Then we gave this information to the IT person, who entered the data in,” says Ms. Salome Razmadze.
“And did all go smoothly with the payment? As agreed, the rate was 150.” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, it all went fine. We were told that 100 lari was the salary and 50 lari paid to to our phone balance so we could order something in,” says Ms. Salome Razmadze.
“And it was not a bank transfer, right? You were paid cash?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, our captain paid us in cash,” says Ms. Salome Razmadze.
Ms. Salome Razmadze corroborated that her role was to receive information on citizens who came to vote from the Georgian Dream representatives known as responsible persons stationed at the precinct 6. She then gave the voters’ names, surname and personal numbers to the computer operator. The computer operator working at Salome Razmadze’s call center was underage and that’s why we won’t tell you her name and surname. We phoned her posing as representatives of Georgian Dream’s Monitoring Service.
“Ana, do you remember the name of the program?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“www.sheavse.ge as I recall,” answers Ana, the computer operator of the call center for voting precinct №6.
“What information did you enter into it?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“We entered personal numbers and, if this person had already voted, I would check her /him off,” answers Ana, the computer operator of the call center for voting precinct 6.
“In this case, you were instructed to type in everyone regardless of which party they supported, right?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes,” answers Ana, the computer operator of the call center for voting precinct 6.
“Did you have to put on the list everyone who came to this voting precinct?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, yes,” answers Ana, the computer operator of the call center for voting precinct 6.
“You were paid in cash the day before, correct?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, that’s right,” answers Ana, the computer operator of the call center for voting precinct №6.
“150 lari, right?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes,” answers Ana, the computer operator of the call center for the precinct 6.
The document obtained by us says that Ms. Mariam Kartvelishvili worked as a computer operator at the call center assigned to the voting precinct 39 located at 173 Khudadovi Street. She also confirmed that she was typing into a specially developed program details of all citizens, who came to vote, including both Georgian Dream voters and all other citizens.
“Hello, Mariam. We are calling you from the central office of Georgian Dream’s monitoring service. We have a couple of questions for you about the recent parliamentary elections. We are conducting an internal inquest. You were a member of the call center in the Chugureti District, at the polling station 39 at 173 Khudadovi Street, right?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili when calling Ms. Mariam Kartvelishvili, who worked at the call center of the Chugureti voting precinct 39.
“Yes,” answers Ms. Mariam Kartvelishvili.
“Were you a computer operator? – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes,” answers Ms. Mariam Kartvelishvili.
“Were you instructed to record all people who came to vote at your polling station?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, all people who came to our polling station,” answers Ms. Mariam Kartvelishvili.
“No matter whose supporters they were?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, no matter whose supporters they were. We just recorded who came to vote. We had to record every case. We did not enter information about which party this or that voter supported. We were not instructed to enter such information,” answers Ms. Mariam Kartvelishvili.
Computer operators entered personal data of voters in e-base www.sheavse.ge. This website was accessible only from the computers of the call centers, from specific IP addresses.
“Let me explain. Two people were answering calls and when they gave us repeating names and surnames, we typed it in to see if the person with that name had already been check off. Then we checked their age and their birthdates to make sure these were different individuals. This is how we worked,” says Ms. Mzia Balanchivadze.
“Have you also received information about the birthdates from the polling stations?” asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, dear, when we had people with the same names and surnames, this girl, Ani, immediately made a call and asked to give us the dates of birth. So, I recorded ages both in the program and on the lists,” says Ms. Mzia Balanchivadze.
“What program did you use? We had two programs,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“I do not remember exactly. I even work in it now,” answers Ms. Mzia Balanchivadze.
“www.sheavse.ge was the portal that you logged in, wasn’t it?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, exactly,” answers Ms. Mzia Balanchivadze.
During this investigation, we interviewed more than 20 individuals involved in the precinct call centers scheme and we collected a lot of evidence that call centers were set up on the election day in the homes of Georgian Dream party activists and employees of the Chugureti District Administration.
Three voting precincts were opened on the election day at Tbilisi’s kindergarten 96, located at 13 Nino Chkheidze Street. Nearby, two Georgian Dream call centers were operating at 26 Nino Chkheidze Street. We found out that the house that accommodated the two call center belongs to an employee of the Chugureti District Administration and Georgian Dream party coordinator, Ms. Marina Maskharashvili. Ms. Maskharashvili also worked as an observer at the voting Precinct 4 of the Chugureti District. Her daughter, Ms. Ketevan Devidze, was the captain of the call center located in their house.
Computer operator of the call center confirmed that the call center was located in Ms. Marina Maskharashvili’s house.
We have visited Ms. Barbare Maisuradze with a hidden camera, introducing ourselves as representatives of the Georgian Dream’s monitoring service.
“We have a couple of questions for you regarding the parliamentary elections. You worked at 26 Nino Chkheidze Street as a computer operator, right?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes. We had a very good captain,” answers Ms. Barbare Maisuradze.
“Did your captain pay you in cash?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes,” answers Ms. Barbare Maisuradze.
After getting confirmations from the call centers’ operators, we decided to talk to the captains, but they were alerted about outsiders inquiring about the call centers, so they didn’t answer our calls. We changed our tactics. When we called, we introduced ourselves as security service officials.
“Hello, are you Ms. Marina Maskharashvili?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes, it’s me,” answers Ms. Marina Maskharashvili.
“I am calling you from the Security Service. I need to warn you about this woman, who is making calls. She appears to be a provocateur. Do not confirm to anyone that there was a call center located in your home,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes, yes, yes,” answers Ms.Marina Maskharashvili.
“And if someone calls you, please send me her number and drop me a message in the chat or use another channel of communication,” asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“I understand,” answers Ms. Marina Maskharashvili.
“I’ll repeat, do not confirm this information to anyone,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“I understand,” answers Ms. Marina Maskharashvili.
After Ms. Marina Maskharashvili confirmed to that there was indeed a call center at her house, we visited her as journalists.
“On October 26, election day, there was a call center functioning in your house and you were also an observer at the polling stations 4 and 6, weren’t you?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini an employee of the Local Administrative Body of Chugureti District, Ms. Maskharashvili.
“What does a call center mean?” – asks Ms. Marina Maskharashvili.
“We have a list from the Chugureti District that shows that personal information of all voters was supplied from the polling stations to the call centers and that you were stationed at the polling station 4 and 6,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“Excuse me, but you are deeply misled. What call center are you talking about? Nothing of what you said happened. In general, I am a supporter of the Georgian Dream and I work at the Chugureti District Administration. I guess I have the right do it, don’t I?”– asks Ms. Maskharashvili.
“Yes, of course,” answers the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“So, I have the right to work at the Chugureti District Administration and be a representative and supporter of the Georgian Dream political party, right? There was no call center here,” says Ms. Maskharashvili.
“There was no collecting and processing of personal information?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“No, nothing like that happened,” says Ms. Maskharashvili.
“Is Ms. Keti Devidze your daughter?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes, Keti Devidze is my daughter,” answers Ms. Maskharashvili.
“Ms. Keti Devidze in this call center…,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze and is interrupted.
“Please, can I tell you the something?” – asks Ms. Maskharashvili.
“Yes, of course,” answers the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“No offense, but you are very much mistaken. And I feel sorry for you because you’ve been tasked by someone to dig up something,” says Ms. Maskharashvili.
“We have not been tasked by anyone,” answers the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“Perhaps, I understand. Georgian Dream rightfully won this election. Let’s make the most of it,” says Ms. Maskharashvili.
Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili supervised the call center located at 1 Gumati Street and tied to the voting precinct 41, which was located in the kindergarten 10 at 21 P. Saakadze Street.
“We are calling to speak to Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili, who was the captain of the call center assigned to the voting precinct number 41. Good day, Mariam. We are calling you from the central office of the party on behalf of Mr. Giorgi. We were tasked to ask call center captains about positive and negative aspects of their experience with the call centers,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“I think it is a mistake. I was neither a captain, nor a leader anywhere. I voted on October 26 and then left the city so I was not able to be at any precinct or something like that,” answers Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili.
A couple of minutes later, we called Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili as security service representatives.
“Hello, Mariam. I am calling you for the Security Service. I’ll be short. Please, listen to me carefully. We were told that someone is making calls to get information about call centers. So if someone calls it, deny it. Has anyone called you already?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes, they have,” answers Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili.
“You were warned before that you should not say anything about the call centers to anyone,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes and I haven’t said anything about this to anyone,” answers Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili.
“Good. And will you cooperate with us in the future, if needed?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“If it is going to involve some people calling me like this and asking questions, then no. While we are at it, I wanted to say that the entire file with our personal information, including our personal numbers, was shared in the chat room. Who is going to be held responsible for the fact that our personal information was leaked?”- asks Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili.
After this, we visited Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili, who supervised the process of collecting and forwarding personal information of hundreds of voters.
“Mariam, don’t you think that by processing personal information of our citizens, you violated the law?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“I didn’t process any personal data, I was not in the city,” answers Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili, the captain of the GD’s election call center.
“Is not this your voice?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes, it is my voice. You’ve obtained this information by deception and this information is not true,” says Ms. Mariam Tatarashvili.
During the course of our investigation, we found in the list of people connected to the call centers not only supporters of the ruling party, but also a chairperson of the precinct election commission.
A call center linked to Chugureti District’s polling station 7, which was located at 8 Chikobava Street, was set up in an apartment registered in the name of Ms. Lela Kartvelishvili, the chairwoman of the election commission of precinct 3 of the Chugureti District.
Mobile operator Ms. Ana Skhirtladze corroborated to us that a call center was indeed stationed at this address.
“Did you work as a mobile operator at Georgian Dream’s election call center?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“And who is this?” – asks Ms. Ana Skhirtladze.
“You worked as mobile operator at the call center of the Chugureti precinct 7,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, but who is your superior?” – asks Ms. Ana Skhirtladze.
“This office was located at 8 Chikobava Street and your captain was Ms. Nino Mamamtavrishvili,”- says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Yes, but, you know that I can’t elaborate on the details,” answers Ms. Ana Skhirtladze.
“We have a list showing that Georgian Dream’s call center was operating on October 26 at your address, 8 Chikobava Street,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili to Ms. Lela Kartvelishvili.
“And then?” – asks Ms. Lela Kartvelishvili.
“Do you confirm this information?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“No,” answers Ms. Lela Kartvelishvili.
“You were a member of the commission,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“I am at work right now,” says Ms. Lela Kartvelishvili.
“You were appointed by the district as a commission chairperson. Was not it a conflict of interest to lend your apartment to Georgian Dream’s call center?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
Ms. Lela Kartvelishvili disconnects the phone call.
———————–
“Can you unfold this sheet of paper for me?” – asks the female journalist.
“Why would I do that? Am I doing something wrong?” – answers the woman wearing glasses at the voting precinct.
“I think you have some kind of a list and you are writing things down there,” asks the female journalist.
“Yes, I have a list and I’m making some notes for myself,” answers the woman wearing glasses.
After studying information leaked from the call centers and the videos taken on election day, we saw that polling stations served as the first link in the mass control and count of voters. The so-called responsible persons, who formally served as observers, incessantly fed to the call centers information on citizens who showed up to vote.
“What sort of personal details you could see when you wrote the information in?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili a woman on the phone.
“Only name, surname, unique code and who was the responsible oerson for this citizen,” answers a woman on the phone.
“And who was the responsible person at your voting precinct?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Ms. Tatuli Khvedelidze,” answers the woman.
——————–
“Just like you, I have the right to observe the elections from any place within the polling station,” says the female observer.
“Can’t you observe the process from the front?” – asks Ms. Eka Shekhiladze.
Ms. Tatuli Khvedelidze was registered as an observer at the polling station 23 and so was her mother, Ms. Eka Shekhiladze. Ms. Shekhiladze works for the Chugureti District Administration.
The video shows her preventing another observer from monitoring the process of identification of voters.
“A member of the call center network confirmed to us that you were recording personal details of voters as they showed up the precinct throughout the day and were supplied this information to the call centers. You were involved in illegal activities and network. Why?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“In what network?” – asks Ms. Tatuli Khvedelidze, the GD’s Responsible Person of the voting precinct № 23 at the Chugureti District.
“You and your family are affiliated with Georgian Dream. Your mother is an employee of the Chugureti District Administration. And you have close relations with [Georgian Dream lawmaker] Ms. Rima Beradze’s family. Was it Ms. Rima Beradze who got you involved in this illegal activity?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Do you believe yourself the things that you are saying?” – asks Ms. Tatuli Khvedelidze.
“Yes, because we have proof,” answers the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“Really?” – asks Ms. Tatuli Khvedelidze.
“All day long, we were at the voting precinct 23..,”says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“You are telling to me about some sort of call center. You came to me with some sort of fake information and you are trying to force it on me,” says Ms. Tatuli Khvedelidze.
“Did Ms. Rima Beradze instruct you to do this?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
————————-
Recording of all voters voter as they showed up at the polls happened in a systematic manner and the observers made plenty of video evidence to proof it.
“You are committing a criminal offense”, says female voice in the video.
“Arrest me,” says another woman.
“I am not the one to arrest you. We’ll report to the relevant agencies that you are committing a criminal offense,” says the same woman.
“Evict this woman from the precinct immediately. I will write a complaint at once”, says the same woman, who was out of camera lenses.
“She was ticking off on the list who come and who didn’t. Just look at this list! It contains addresses, names of responsible persons, phone numbers,” says a man, a participant of the election process at this voting precinct, who took this list from that woman.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has been monitoring elections for years and has studied various methods of electoral fraud practiced in different countries.
“If we follow the logic of it, then the purpose to pressure voters to show up at the polls and to keep track of voting results at the precinct. On top of this, you can you this to influence election results. For example, if you see that you are short on supporters in one place, you can mobilize more voters there. It can be used for other types of manipulation and we’ve seen quite a bit of it. We’ve had cases of multiple voting, voter impersonation, failure to check election ink properly, which may be a sign of “carousel voting.” All of this gives us grounds to believe that this [compiling of voter information] was used to help employ additional mechanisms for achieving desired results,” says Ms. Nino Dolidze, the Executive Director of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED).
“We’ve found out that the call center workers were trained in advance by the ruling party. They were handled by the so-called captains. For the most part, the call centers were set up in the apartments of the ruling party activists and employees the Chugureti District Administration or on the premises of public institutions. They were set up in a very close proximity of polling stations, about 200-250 meters away,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“We also found that one or two call centers were tied to each polling station. All call center operators received cash payments of 150 lari the day before, on October 25. All call center staffers were in contact with the responsible persons deployed at the polling stations and received from them personal information of every single voter,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“One of each call center employee then logged this information into www.sheavse.ge, a portal designed specifically for this election. Data from all over the nation was consolidated in this portal and Georgian Dream’s campaign office had access to it,” says the reporter, Ms. Nino Ramishvili.
“We also found proof that this scheme was put in action in other regions and not just in Tbilisi. For example, in Akhmeta, a homeowner confirmed that a call center was functioning at his home,” says the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Hello, is this Ms. Nato Datukishvili?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Hello, yes, it’s me,” answers Ms. Nato Datukishvili.
“Did everything go smoothly?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“Yes, everything went well. I’ve spent a lot of time at the precinct,” answers Ms. Nato Datukishvili.
“What was your specific role?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“I was a campaigner along with other things,” answers Ms. Nato Datukishvili.
“And you had no trouble sending the information over?” – asks the reporter, Mr. Zura Modebadze.
“No, it was based in my apartment. They were my friends. But I was over at the precinct, doing my part of the job. I’ve encountered no trouble whatsoever,” answers Ms. Nato Datukishvili.
We’ve also got an audio recording proving that the call centers were administered from the Georgian Dreams campaign headquarters.
“Please, drop this message in every chat room. Share the voice message that I’m going to send in all the chats. Greeting, friends, captains. We see that we have problem with the slower pace of information transfer from the responsible persons. You are doing a very good job logging the information and thank you very much for this because we have no delays anywhere. Now, in about 10 minutes, I want you to call again all the responsible persons and explain to them that it is imperative that they update us on the rate of bringing citizens from lists to the polls because we are in a blind spot now. We are about 30% behind. Without this information, we may make a mistake, be late to react and fail. To avoid this, we need each of them to provide information very responsibly. Be sure to explain to each responsible person that the information they provide is crucial, and not just at every top of the hour, but constantly. That’s why, I ask you to forward on this voice message immediately,” excerpt from the audio recording of Mr. Beno Gegechkori, the representative of the ruling party’s Election Service of Regional Department.
The person, who is asking the captain to forward on this audio message, is Mr. Beno Gegechkori, a regional representative of the ruling party’s campaign team,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
In another video recording that we’ve obtained, he talks about financing the call centers.
“I’ll have the funds tomorrow and will deliver it to the headquarters to distribute among the call centers’ employees. They deserve their honoraria and even more. But we have what we have at the moment,” excerpt from the audio recording of Mr. Beno Gegechkori, the representative of the ruling party’s Election Service of Regional Department.
“Hello, Mr. Beno. I am calling you from Studio Monitori. I have a couple of questions for you. We have the audio messages that you’ve sent to call center captains. You’ve organized call centers on election day that illegally processed personal information of voters,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“I’m sorry, what did they do illegally?” – asks Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“Process personal information,” answers the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“What kind of personal information?” – asks Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“As far as we know, they recorded personal data of all voters from all precincts and send them on to you,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“Whose personal data they sent to me?” – asks Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“Of all voters, who came to the polls,” answers the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“You are lying. Not of all voters. It’s not true. Have you fact-checked this information?” – asks Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“Yes, of course”, says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“Then you were given wrong information. We made records of our supporters’ turnout at the polls. And you can’t show me any legislation, be foreign or Georgian, electoral or criminal, or legislation on personal information. No law says that it is illegal to to mobilize our supporters,” says Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“The operators, who were logging data on www.sheavse.ge portal, confirmed to us that they were collecting information of all the voters, not only of Georgian Dream supporters. The people you hired said that,” says Ms. Tskriala Shermadini, the reporter.
“That’s not true, Tskriala,” answers Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“You paid salaries in cash. Where did the money come from?” – asks the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“So once you saw that one claim was false and libelous, you are now switching from one carefully concocted story to another?” – asks Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
“Lots of people confirmed this to us, the people you hired and paid”, says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“This is utter nonsense, entirely false,” says Mr. Beno Gegechkori.
As you see, Mr. Beno Gegechkori didn’t answer our question about how the ruling party cash to the employees of the call centers salaries. We’ll try to get more information on this from the ruling party member, Ms. Rima Beradze, who was in charge of the Chugureti branch of the ruling party’s campaign operation.
“No, no, you have wrong information,” says Ms. Rima Beradze.
“In each call center there were captains, telephone operators and computer operators, who were logging the data on the portal www.sheavse.ge,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“What television do you present?” – asks Ms. Rima Beradze.
“Studio Monitori,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“Your information is totally wrong, dear. There was only one call center in at the campaign headquarters. This is a regular electoral process. It was located at 3 Chitaia Street, the office that I supervised,” says Ms. Rima Beradze.
“We have confirmations from many people working in these call centers created for each voting precinct that they were paid in cash”, says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“No, this is not true. This is just another lie,” says Ms. Rima Beradze.
Next we went to the Central Election Commission (CEC) to ask about the scheme Georgian Dream’s used during October 26 elections to collect and process personal information of voters.
“The legislation clearly states that it is impermissible to prevent and restrict free movement of voters at the precincts and in a 10 meter-distance from polling stations. It is impermissible to make records of voters, to mobilize people and so forth. If you have evidence that criminal offenses took place, of course you should go to the relevant authorities,” says Ms. Natia Ioseliani, a representative of the Central Election Commission.
“Such people were present almost at every polling place. Offices (call centers) with their own IP addresses were located near polling stations precincts. They received this information and entered it in the database www.seavse.ge portal. We are wondering, if…,” says the reporter, Ms. Tskriala Shermadini.
“I can’t confirm anything to you in this regard. I can only confirm that we have also seen the cases on the social media and television, but these cases don’t mean anything to us until relevant authorities get involved and verify that a particular kind of crime took place. You or other organizations should present concrete evidence…,” says Ms. Natia Ioseliani, the representative of CEC.
According to the preliminary results of vote count by the CEC, Georgian Dream received 1,112,011 votes, which is 53.93% of the vote.
The opposition and observers from non-profit groups speak out about wholesale election fraud and refuse to accept the election as legitimate.
“The scheme used by the Georgian Dream has been exposed. It was about secret centers of voter control. All voters – and not just the supporters of the Georgian Dream, but absolutely all voters – who went to the polls were under control. Information on all voters was compromised. Georgian Dream watched movement of voters in real time, watched who showed up at the polls. This by itself is a way to control over voters and it is a criminal offense. They will definitely be held accountable for this. As for the rest of it, when Georgian Dream can see who is going to the election and who is not, it is not hard to guess that they can use personal information of those who didn’t go to the elections. They then gave this information to the party staffers, who wrote down identification numbers of these people on small pieces of papers, folded these papers and put them in their identification documents. They used the identification numbers to carry out what is known as a “technical carousel,” says Mr. Besik Donadze, a representative of the Coalition for Change.
“It was a combination of several different techniques. They either kept voters under control, coercing them to vote and then checking if they did, or took personal information of non-voters or even their ID cards and gave it all to their agents, who went to the polls and cast votes for the ruling party instead of other people. This is a large-scale scheme of falsifying the elections,” says Mr. Sandro Baramidze, the Human Rights and Justice Program Manager at the Transparency International Georgia.
The Central Election Commission made a statement saying that instances of voting with other people’s ID numbers have not been corroborated.
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“Are you marked? How can you do this? How can you do this?” – asks the female observer.
“Whose passport did you bring, sir?” – asks the female journalist.
On the election day, Studio Monitori crew filmed many attempts of vote-rigging at precinct4 in Marneuli.
“Excuse me, why couldn’t you vote?” – asks the female journalist the woman in the cap.
“Come outside,” says the woman wearing the cap.
“Don’t touch me,” says the female journalist.
“Don’t touch my phone,” says the female journalist.
“What are you recording? Record on a video camera and not on the phone,” says a man at the precinct.
“What prevented you from voting?” – asks the female journalist again.
“I will vote. I am speaking on the phone now. I will go back in and vote,” answers the woman wearing a cap.
The woman in this video tried to vote using another person’s personal number that was concealed in the passport. When Studio Monitori caught this fact on camera, she left the polling station.
“Excuse me, why you couldn’t vote?” – asks the female journalist.
The observer of the Vote Watch, Ms. Eva Sadikova, who was based at the polling station 4 in Marneuli, told us in an interview that she mostly saw these kind of violations.
“This man came in for the second time. The first time, you were sent away because you had another person’s passport. Now tell me is this man the man on the photo? ” – asks Ms. Eva Sadikova.
“The most recurring violation that we have seen is that citizens keep coming in with several different passports. And when the CEC representative says: “It’s not you,” this person turns the passport to the page, where small pieces of paper are folded,” says Ms. Eva Sadikova.
“Did you see what is written on these pieces of paper?” – asks the female journalist.
“Some kind of codes, numbers, but I don’t know what these numbers mean. Also, the people who were turned away the first time, then return together with the Georgian Dream observer,” says Ms. Eva Sadikova.
“Why do you touch this?” – asks someone.
“Is this your passport?” Where do you take it?” – asks the female voice.
“Which one?” – asks a man in the orange jacket.
The “Vote Watch” observer was referring to Mr. Lasha Burnadze, who was at this precinct as an observer from the Training and Development Institute of Georgia. Mr. Burnadze told us openly that he is a supporter of the Georgian Dream. Our camera captured how he handed over passports to several people who came to the precinct.
“You are present at the precinct in the capacity of an observer, but we captured it on camera that you handed a passport to a young man outside. I’m just curious, in what capacity are you here?” – asks the female journalist.
“Why did not you act on it? I intentionally handed over the passport to him to see if you were going act on it,” says Mr. Lasha Burnadze.
“You intentionally gave the passport to this man? You are here to hand around passports outside?” – asks the female journalist.
“What passport did I give? Show me your recording. Where do you see a passport? The boy gave me money,” answers Mr. Lasha Burnadze.
“Take a better look. It is clearly seen in this video that you gave him a passport,” says the female journalist.
“No, it is a wallet, don’t you see?”- answers Mr. Lasha Burnadze.
One of the methods of prevent falsification is to check incoming voters for indelible ink marks. Studio Monitori journalists however saw that in various cities commission members didn’t check the voters for the marks in a proper way.
“Do you check the mark only on one hand?” – asks the female journalist.
“No, not only on one hand. We check mainly the thumb of the right hand,” says a woman responsible for checking the indelible ink marks.
“But should not you check both hands for the marks?” – asks the female journalist.
“Yes, I should, but mainly the marks are made on the thumb of the right hand, which is what the law prescribes,” says the woman responsible for checking the marking.
At the voting precinct 4 in Marneuli it was evident that some citizens showed up at the polls carrying other citizens’ passports or they had pieces of papers with other citizens’ personal numbers folded and hidden in their passports.
Complaints filed by many observers on the election day suggest that this scheme of manipulation was very likely used not only at the precinct 4 of Marneuli, but also across other districts and cities of Georgia.
“Don’t record me on your phone, bring camera and record me on it. Understand?” – says the man wearing the black cap and hits the phone of the journalist.
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