On February 17, the pro-government media outlet POSTV published (1;2) a video with the caption, “Zviad Dzidziguri acknowledges the election results,” featuring Zviad Dzidziguri, a member of the political party For Georgia. In a video cut out from a show on Pirveli TV, he says, “850,000 people voted against them [the ruling Georgian Dream party]. When you speak to 850,000 people in such a manner and oppose them with such methods, it is impossible for any of these 850,000 people to either get frightened or change their position; the opposite is happening…”
The same video was shared by pro-government expert Nino Pochkhua. Her commentary on Dzidziguri’s video was covered by the media holding Kvira, Imedi, Qartuli Azri, NewsHub, Reportiori, and InfoPostalioni.com. Pro-government media also covered the response from Zurab Kadagidze, a member of the People’s Power (1;2;3).
The video manipulation of Zviad Dzidziguri is circulating. The video is cut in such a way that it gives the impression that Dzidziguri himself is confirming that 850,000 people voted for the opposition. In reality, before the sentence shown in the video, he says the words “from their perspective, with their numbers,” which confirms that he is not speaking about his own position regarding the votes in the election.
The program “Dgis Ambebi” [News of the Day], from which the video published by POSTV was cut, aired on the Pirveli TV channel on February 17. By watching the full segment, in which they discussed the attack on Giorgi Gakharia at the airport, it becomes clear that Dzidziguri was not speaking about how many votes the opposition received in his opinion. The politician was discussing the percentages calculated by the Central Election Commission, which is exactly what the words “from their perspective, with their numbers” refer to.
| The cut quote | The full quote |
| “850,000 people voted against them [the ruling Georgian Dream party]. When you speak to 850,000 people in such a manner and oppose them with such methods, it is impossible for any of these 850,000 people to either get frightened or change their position; the opposite is happening…” | [[From 31:50] “From their perspective, with their numbers, 800,000 or 850,000 people voted against them. When you speak to 850,000 people in such a manner and oppose them with such methods, it is impossible for any of these 850,000 people to either get frightened or change their position; the opposite is happening…” |
Myth Detector reached out to Zviad Dzidziguri. The politician confirmed that in the mentioned segment of the program, he was talking about the data from the Georgian Dream.
“In response to the journalist’s question, my answer was that when so many people vote against you, you can’t speak to these people in the language of violence. I elaborated on this idea further and said that even according to their own data, 850,000 people voted against them. If they consider this as the recognition of the legitimacy of the elections, they are in serious trouble regarding this legitimacy; I can’t add anything else,” he told us.
It is also worth noting that no statement from Dzidziguri, where he acknowledges the results of the 2024 parliamentary elections, can be found through open sources. On the contrary, he talks about fraudulent elections in his interviews with the media.
According to CEC data, in the 2024 elections, the Georgian Dream received 53.93% of the votes, the Coalition for Changes received 11.03%, the United National Movement received 10.17%, Strong Georgia received 8.81%, and the For Georgia party received 7.78%.
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