If it turns out that the Ambassador knew about the falsehood of the PVT results and, nonetheless, kept it secret, then this revelation turns upside down the integrity of the entire facilitation and mediation efforts during the April 19 Agreement process, writes the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament on the social network.

“Most recent resurgence of acute interest towards Georgia among the members of the U.S. Congress’s Helsinki Commission reminds us of a disappointing and burdensome issue that remains in Georgia-U.S. relations: To this day, we have not received a convincing answer to the question of what role the U.S. Government representatives and U.S.-funded non-governmental organizations played in disseminating false results of the parallel vote tabulation (PVT) in the wake of the 2020 Parliamentary elections in Georgia.

The non-governmental organization ISFED then disseminated false PVT results that became a pretext for the opposition to foment unrest, demand extraordinary elections, and pursue a boycott of the Parliamentary work. All this damaged not only Georgian democracy but also our country’s reputation. That is when the false narratives about the ‘backsliding’ of Georgian democracy started to circulate.

Today, we know for sure that not only did ISFED disseminate purposefully false PVT results but also that USAID knew about it and kept it from Georgian authorities and Georgian people.

Then director of ISFED Elene Nizharadze (who, as we were told, was punished with dismissal from her position) was soon enough reappointed in the Montenegro office of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which, as it happens, is funded by the same donor who funds ISFED. One of the high-ranking representatives of USAID, who knew and, nonetheless, concealed the fact that PVT results were false, became chief of USAID mission in another country.

A separate issue is what the then U.S. Ambassador in Georgia knew, who then acted as a mediator between Georgian Government and opposition. Since USAID is a U.S. government institution and is physically situated in U.S. Embassy premises, it is difficult to believe that the Ambassador was kept in dark about the issue. If it turns out that the Ambassador knew about the falsehood of the PVT results and, nonetheless, kept it secret, then this revelation turns upside down the integrity of the entire facilitation and mediation efforts during the April 19 Agreement process.

Being in denial of these issues in Georgian-American relations does not really help our strategic partnership. The U.S. Congress has every leverage to investigate this issue. However, sadly, instead of providing persuasive answers to the above questions, we only hear accusations in spreading false narratives, which, increasingly, look more like attempts to silence the critics than caring about the truth.

Georgia stood by the American people whenever it was needed. The Helsinki Commission claims to speak on behalf of the American people, and we, as the democratically elected Georgian authorities, tell them, on behalf of the people of Georgia, to investigate this thorny issue and set the record straight.

An open and persuasive investigation of the issue of manipulative distortion of the results of PVT by the U.S. Representatives would be a due appreciation of Georgians’ commitment to the friendship with America”, - writes Shalva Papuashvili.