PM Kobakhidze slams US Embassy for “manipulative” banner on 2020 election results

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday criticized a recent banner published by the US Embassy in Georgia over the 2020 election results, calling it “grossly manipulative” and accusing it of “distorting facts” during a press briefing.

Kobakhidze specifically addressed the US Ambassador to Georgia, urging an investigation into what he described as “misleading actions” by the embassy staff.

The PM argued the banner misrepresented electoral data, “falsely suggesting” an error of 1.8 percent in the final vote count, when in fact, according to him, the actual figure was 2.5 percent.

“1.8 percent represents over 35,000 votes, but the real figure is 2.5 percent, amounting to 50,000 votes. This is not just a small mistake; it’s a significant distortion that must be corrected”, Kobakhidze stated.
The US Embassy on Wednesday asked in its banned why the GD put the partnership with the Washington for 1.8%, in relation to the claims by the GD authorities that the US-funded ISFED NGO had “deliberately released false parallel vote tabulation data” in the 2020 vote to help the domestic opposition “spark unrest” in the country.

Kobakhidze claimed “two foreign ambassadors” were “supporting” the opposition’s attempts to overthrow the GD authorities with the use of the “fake PVT results”.

Pointing to a “formula error”, ISFED claimed the difference between its initial and adjusted data was 1.8 percent.