The voting at the polling stations has completed, and the processes of counting of votes and tabulation of results are underway. At this point, a large number of voters are gathered within the outer perimeter of precinct no. 48 in Marneuli and precincts no. 38, 108, and 79 of Zugdidi, which has a peaceful character. The police are also present near the polling stations. We call upon the political subjects and their supporters to wait for the vote count and tabulation of results quietly.
At this point, the GYLA monitors have observed the following:
Verbal altercation between observers
There was a verbal altercation between observers of monitoring organizations at precinct no. 108 in Zugdidi. An observer of monitoring organization, Freedom and Equality Center, gave an instruction to the chairperson of the PEC to close the poll at 7:57 P.M. A representative of monitoring organization, All Together, responded to this instruction, asking the observer of Freedom and Equality Center why she was interfering in the powers of the PEC chairperson, which was followed by a verbal altercation.
Restriction of the right of suffrage
A voter was inked at Zugdidi’s precinct no. 48, though it turned out that he was an IDP and didn’t have an IDP card, together with an ID card, with him, which is necessary for IDPs to take part in elections. The citizen was told that he could ask an acquaintance to bring his IDP card. The citizen went and brought the IDP card to the polling station, although, as he had already been inked, the commisison didn’t allow him to cast a vote. The GYLA representative made a remark in the logbook in connection with this fact.
Presence of unauthorized persons within the outer perimeter of precincts
During the day, there has been a presence of individuals in areas adjacent to the precincts who register arriving voters (pecincts no. 79 and 108 of Zugdidi). We should note that the aforementioned constitutes indirect influence on the expression of voters’ will, which is a problem. These cases indicate that there is still a need to regulate this issue at the legislative level, by including a definition of the area adjacent to a precinct in the Election Code.
Arrangement of polling stations
At about 6 P.M., there was an electricity outage for 10-15 minutes at precinct no. 48 in Marneuli, but this didn’t affect the conduct of electoral procedures.
At this point, the GYLA observers have filed 2 complaints regarding the aforementioned violations (in connection with the same violation in the PEC and the DEC) and made 3 remarks in the logbook at the Marneuli precinct.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association is observing the repeat elections of the Parliament of Georgia of October 8, 2016, at four election precincts of two election districts. Representatives of the organization are observing the majoritarian elections that are being held in PEC no. 36.22.48 of majoritarian district no. 36 (Marneuli), as well as in PECs no. 66.67.38, 66.67.79 and 66.67.108 of majoritarian district no. 66 (Zugdidi) where both parliamentary majoritarian elections and the elections of heads of municipal administrations are being held.
The GYLA has actively observed elections since its founding (in 1994), trying to contribute to the conduct of elections in a quiet and fair environment and to steadfast observance of the Georgian legislation during electoral processes.
The GYLA’s monitoring of the polling day of the repeat parliamentary elections was made possible by the funding of the Embassy of the United Kingdom, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Open Society – Georgia foundation. The opinions expressed in the statement belong to the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, and their content may not express the views of the donor organizations.
