Gia Khukhashvili: It is logical to demand that the elections be conducted by a third party, however, how realistic this is is another matter, and the government's refusal of an international audit is the same as the silence of a person accused of murder, which is an indirect confirmation
It is a logical requirement that the election be conducted by a third party, if such an election is held. As for the logic of the application itself, how realistic it is is another matter, - this is how political scientist Gia Khukhashvili responded to the demand of the opposition parties to hold re-elections in Georgia, which will be held by the International Election Administration.
According to Khukhashvili, if the international community criticized the election results, but recognized its results, in this case, this political statement of the opposition forces will remain only a political statement.
"This is a political application, because there is such a feeling in the society - not only in political parties, but also in civil society as a whole, in a very large part of voters, that there were systemic violations during the elections. This means that there is a reasonable suspicion that crimes were committed with the participation of election administrations in all precincts. Election violation is a criminal offense. If it is documented that the violations were systemic, it would be absurd for the same electoral administration to hold re-elections, because there would be too many people accused of criminal offenses. It is a logical requirement that someone, a third party, conducts the elections if these elections are held. As for the logic of the application itself, how realistic it is is another matter. Now the political process is going on, where the active phase has not ended, the West - the party that has to legitimize these elections or recognize the elections or not - has not yet expressed its final opinions and conclusions. If the international community criticized the election results, but recognized its results, in this case, this political statement will remain only a political statement. If the international community did not recognize the results of the elections, confirmed that the violations at the elections were systemic, which significantly changed the results of the elections, in this case, this political application has a certain perspective, in what form, it is another matter. The international administration will conduct it, if they agree on another technical mechanism, this is another matter. If the government, after these elections are not known, will still try to actually usurp power, which means that the crisis will move to a new stage, when the people, as the source of power, will try to prevent a coup d'état, which in this case the government is organizing in our country, because the constitution goes beyond. It is a difficult political process, I can't say anything in advance how things will develop, there are too many players, there are too many parameters in all of this," said Khukhashvili.
He also responded to the statement of Matthew Miller, the spokesperson of the US State Department, according to which they want to conduct an investigation regarding the elections held in Georgia and are consulting with their European partners about which body will do this. According to Khukhashvili, if the West demands such a development of events and the government does not express its political will, the country will return to the Russian Empire.
"This is a very important element, because today it seems that a significant part of the violations was related to specific weaknesses of the new technology. It was not a networked system, it was an autonomous system, I have no doubt that the machine itself was calculating correctly, but what it was calculating is another matter. As the monitoring missions say, there are a lot of video materials, one of the organizations said, we have more than 400 pieces of evidence, this already indicates a systematic crime. When such reasonable suspicion arises, an investigation must be conducted. The machines should be opened, the lists should come out, what is recorded there, who gave the votes, some algorithms can be used to verify whether these people were actually at the elections or not. Then the scale should be assessed, if it appeared that it had a mass character, naturally, the results of the elections should be annulled and re-elections should be called. I think that the government will not have the political will to do so. If the West demands such development and the government does not express political will, we should know that we are returning to the Russian Empire. This means that the government finally refuses the partnership. It created an illusion, we will start overloading, if there is a negative response to this request from our government, it means that our country automatically becomes a prey of Russia, then every citizen must take responsibility for themself, whether he wants to live in Russia or not.
If the West recommends that an international audit be conducted, and if the authorities refuse to do so, it is almost the same as if a person accused of murder enjoys the right to remain silent, which is in fact an indirect confirmation that he is a murderer. It's a simple logic, if they have nothing to hide, if everything was fine, why should they refuse," said Khukhashvili.
