Violence mars voting in Georgia’s pivotal election

TBILISI, Georgia — Violence erupted at multiple polling stations in Georgia on Saturday as voters were casting their ballots in the South Caucasian country’s pivotal parliamentary election.
“They beat us, spit at us, swore at us,” said election observer Gela Mtivlishvili at the Akhmeta polling station in eastern Georgia. Earlier at a different polling station, “we witnessed how a Georgian Dream party coordinator gave money to a voter,” he said.
Journalists and activists reported cases of physical altercations at polling stations with what opposition politicians called “criminal gangs.”
This parliamentary election is widely regarded as a defining point for the country’s international standing — it could determine whether Georgia tilts toward the EU or Moscow.
Opposition politician Ana Natsvlishvili from the Strong Georgia party said law enforcement authorities were idle, despite the fact that “organized criminal gangs … are trying to undermine the voting process with aggression and intimidation.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili urged the Interior Ministry to remove criminals from polling places.
The ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, speculated that an opposition TV channel might be “staging special operations” to create the impression of chaos.
A polling station in Marneuli, a town in southern Georgia, was closed down after a video circulated online showing a man, identified as a ruling party representative, stuffing a ballot box with dozens of ballots. An investigation was launched into possible “election fraud,” and Georgia’s Central Election Committee said the ballots cast at that polling station will be invalidated.
Georgia’s Central Election Commission reported voter turnout at 41.62 percent as of 3 p.m. Tbilisi time.