I would like to see an investigation in the Congress, what was the role of USAID in disseminating the fake results of the parallel counting in 2020, whether the then-US Ambassador knew that the results were false. Such a statement made today the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia.

“After the 2020 elections, on November 4 these organizations published a fake conclusion regarding the elections, in which they indicated that these were the most undemocratic elections. According to their words the 1st reason for this was the late announcement of the results, which was a lie. The 2nd lie was the excess of ballots in eight percent of polling stations. The 3rd lie was the results of a parallel count. Everything that these organizations recorded was a lie.

Then, on the basis of this, a scandal occurred in a certain part of society. Because of this, they created a perception that the elections were rigged. Instead of the donors of these organizations reacting to this, investigating what was the matter, whether they were aligned with the opposition and acted in agreement with the opposition, they added money, announced themselves as the main observers, and will keep them in the best terms.

At the same time, we remind you that in 2020 not only NGOs were involved in fraud, but also their donors. The USAID was the donor of the parallel counting of votes for the 2020 elections. Later it turned out and the head of ISFED admitted that USAID had information that the results of the parallel counting of votes, which ISFED circulated for a month, were false. USAID hid information about these results from both the Georgian government and the Georgian people for almost a month. On the part of the donor this is direct interference in election processes.

For a month ISFED has been lying to the public and again giving fake numbers as if they were true. USAID knew this, which is not an ordinary fund, it is a US state agency, a government structure, USAID is a representative of the US government. Then it turned out that they knew and not only didn’t tell, we had meetings with USAID before that and they assured us that everything was correct, the parallel calculation of ISFED was checked and there were no mistakes.

When we hear in the Congress that disinformation is being spread, I wonder if they will call it disinformation that USAID knew and hid the truth, it hid the truth from the Georgian people, as well as from the government. Therefore, it would be my desire and expectation especially in the light of the current debates in Congress, that there would be an investigation in Congress of the fact of what happened in October-November 2020 in Georgia, what role USAID had in spreading the fake results of parallel counting, who else knew beyond USAID?

Did the US Ambassador, Embassy staff know about this? The USAID is a government agency, it is located in the US Embassy. It is important to know whether the then-Ambassador was aware that the results of the parallel count were incorrect.

The Ambassador at that time was involved in the facilitation between opposition and Government, was a kind of mediator. Of course, if it turns out that the mediator knew the truth and hid that truth from the parties, that would completely turn upside down the whole process that we had then with the mediation and after the agreement on April 19. It will turn upside down the role that different diplomats had in this process.

Therefore, I expect that instead of the anti-Georgian rhetoric that we hear recently from foreign colleagues, the democratic process will require the US Congress to conduct an investigation into the role of USAID in not disclosing the correct results of the parallel calculation and in presentation false results”, - said Shalva Papuashvili.