Giorgi Kalandarishvili, the head of Georgia’s Election Commission, suffered an eye injury in the incident.
David Kirtadze walks up to the head of the Election Commission and throws black paint on him (Image source: AP)
The head of Georgia’s Election Commission, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, was doused in black paint while announcing the poll results in the parliament. A video broadcast on local TV channels showed David Kirtadze, a member of former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), splashing black paint on Kalandarishvili, which led to an eye injury, Reuters reported. The incident occurred on October 26.
In the now-viral video, Kirtadze walks up to the head of the Election Commission, throws black paint on him, and runs outside the parliament. Several members of the parliament run after him to nab him. As the video progresses, housekeeping staff can be seen wiping the chair and the table covered in black paint.
Sharing the video on Instagram, Brut America wrote, “The meeting was held to confirm the results of the country’s controversial October 26 parliamentary elections,” adding, “Before the act, Kirtadze criticized the results, claiming they did not reflect the voters’ true choice.”
Watch the video here:
The video prompted social media users to react, “Democracy is on shaky ground across the world… pretty alarming.” Another user commented, “In 2021, following the January 6th Capitol riot, violent protests targeted several members of Congress, and there were concerns about the safety of voting sessions in the aftermath.”
According to Reuters, Kalandarishvili returned to the meeting with a plaster on his left eye. Before the incident, Kirtadze, the disrupter, told Kalandarishvili that the official election results did not accurately reflect the voters’ “true choice.”
In response, Kalandarishvili argued that the presence of “pressure, intimidation, and personal insults” indicated there was no proof of vote manipulation.
Source: The Indian Express
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