Georgian Dream is accused of using call centers to monitor and pressure voters

An investigative television program broadcast by Pirveli has alleged that Georgian Dream used call centers to monitor and pressure voters, employed fake observers, and confiscated voter IDs in exchange for money to cast fraudulent votes.

The show Nodar Meldadzis Shabati (“Nodar Meladzes Saturday”), hosted by Nodar Meladze, broadcast on Saturday.

“Around 1,000” digital files were cited as evidence, including text and voice messages, images, video footage, and Excel and Word documents – material which they admit was not fully processed at the time of broadcast. The program claimed that Georgian Dream operated around 6,000 “call centers” to monitor election day turnout and pressure voters if they did not cast their votes on time.

They said the ruling party has set up call centers for every polling place across Georgia. The centers were reportedly located near these stations in rental apartments or, in some cases, in the same building as the station itself.

The broadcast highlighted an example of a call center that was allegedly set up in the office of a principal of the 30th public school in Tbilisi, directly above the polling station on the ground floor. Another example was found in the Chughureti kitchen for socially disadvantaged people in Tbilisi.

According to the report, the ruling party maintained an electronic database of voters, each assigned a specific number and monitored by individuals – sometimes up to three – who were responsible for ensuring they showed up at the polling station.

Call centers would be overseen by a designated “captain” who would have ultimate responsibility for turnout at each station. Georgian Dream reportedly managed its 6,000 captains through a computer program that was accessed through personal ID numbers and a one-time SMS code that expires 30 seconds after transmission.

The program further claimed that captains were regularly required to update turnout numbers in real time, allowing party leaders to closely monitor turnout throughout the day. Party officials reportedly began contacting the captains later in the day, urging them to step up their efforts to mobilize additional voters.

The show aired several voice messages allegedly leaked by Georgian Dream. One message warned call centers that the party was “50%” below its target numbers, while another reported a 30% shortfall.

“All call centers should start calling the responsible people as the number of participants is very low. “Urgently call all the responsible people within six minutes,” one person was heard saying in one of the broadcast recordings, suggesting that they had sent the message before 9:30 that morning.

In one of the audio recordings allegedly sent to call centers by a party representative, the spokesman stated that they could monitor how actively call center employees are contacting the potential voters assigned to them on their lists.

In Saturday's episode, the show identified prominent lawyer Aleksandre Kobaidze as one of the “captains” who allegedly runs a “call center” from his apartment in Tbilisi. When asked to comment on a database in which he was listed as captain, Kobaidze told the show's reporter: “I confirm that I supported Georgian Dream; There's nothing to hide here. When asked what the captain's role entails, Kobaidze replied that “the captain is responsible for the person who, let's say, has a direct connection to the party.”

Fake election observers and identity fraud

The program also reported that on election day, “semi-criminal” groups were stationed outside polling stations across the country, allegedly refusing entry to certain voters if they were suspected of not supporting the ruling party. They also reportedly accompanied and checked voters directly at the voting booth.

The Pirveli The program reported that these incidents occurred at polling stations in Tbilisi as well as at remote polling stations in Georgia.

They reported that the Observer of Politics and Law, an organization founded by lawyer Grigol Gagnidze, who along with his wife Eka Aghladze, who led a similar group, managed a total of up to 5,146 fake election observers.

The monitors, identified by visible badges, were present at various polling stations, including in Dmanisi, where they allegedly instructed voters on how to vote and kept lists of voters who were reportedly paid or expected to be paid for their ballots. that they get paid.

Among these fake observers, the program claimed, were members of local city authorities, including Beka Mikautadze, the governor of Tbilisi's Krtsanisi district, who was registered with the Khashuri Women Entrepreneurs' Association.

The program alleged that the ruling party had deployed fake observers under its control at polling stations to create chaos and conflict and distract truly independent observers, including media professionals. This tactic was reportedly used in situations where Georgian Dream was likely to have problems, and allowed voter registrars to falsify results using confiscated IDs of actual absent voters without being subject to stricter scrutiny.

A key method of voter fraud reported on the program involved voters arriving at polling stations with a piece of paper containing someone else's ID number and being treated as legitimate voters by complicit registrars. The slips were often inserted into a fraudulent voter's passport, a practice confirmed by several observers on Election Day.

The program cited several instances of people voting using other people's IDs, with video clips purporting to support this, including two alleged cases of men attempting to vote using women's IDs.

They highlighted Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki, southern Georgian municipalities with large Armenian populations, as regions where the ruling party secured high voter turnout and strong support through alleged fraud, including vote buying and ID manipulation.

According to the preliminary results, Georgian Dream secured 90% support in Ninotsminda and 89% in Akhalkalaki.

The first figures, which emerged hours after polling stations closed on October 26, were accompanied at times by anti-Armenian and anti-Azerbaijani statements online by some Georgian government critics, highlighting in particular the high number of votes cast for the ruling party in areas with a large ethnic Armenian majority and Azerbaijani communities. These comments reappeared below PirveliReport from Saturday.

To illustrate the fraud in the region, the show team visited several villages and settlements in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki, including Aspara, Didi Samsari, Tirkna, Ikhtila and Sameba, where the reporter misled local residents by posing as a party mobilizer “Georgian Dream” issued. While they were candidly filmed, several residents confirmed that their identification documents had been confiscated and they were paid between ₾100 and ₾200 ($36 to $73) for it.