TI-Georgia to observe up to 150 violations

Transparency International – Georgia monitored the second round of the local self-government elections with over 250 observers.

TI-Georgia reported that the organization’s election observers reported up to 150 insignificant and relatively serious violations during the day and filed a total of 23 complaints in the district and precinct electoral commissions.

According to TI, since the elections in many precincts were concluded with a rather narrow margin, the violations and problematic tendencies, encountered both, in the pre-election period and on Election Day, might have had a serious impact on the ability of voters to exercise their free choice, as well as on the final results of the elections.

As the NGO notes, therefore, the public could have legitimate questions with regards to the overall fairness of the elections.

“The second round of 2021 local self-government elections was held in a largely peaceful environment during the first half of the day, but later the situation became tense at many electoral precincts, with reports of escalating instances of physical and verbal confrontations.

Furthermore, there were many instances of interference in the work of journalists and the unlawful noting down of voters’ identities at the polling station. We observed the gathering of party coordinators outside many precincts, including within a 100-meter radius of the polling stations, which is a violation according to the new amendments of the Electoral Code.

Various violations by biased observer organizations, which were in most cases supported by the election commissions, were another issue on Election Day. During the process of vote counting and tallying of votes, there was an observed trend of precinct election commissions artificially stalling the completion of the summary protocols and sending of draft summary protocols to the district election commissions in advance for approval.

Furthermore, there were instances of incorrect sorting of invalid and valid ballots in several electoral precincts. The Central Election Commission began the publication of preliminary results at the same time with the summary protocols becoming public, which is an improvement of the practice observed during the first round,” reads the TI-Georgia summary of monitoring the second round of the 2021 municipal elections.

Will you cast your vote?