On Tuesday, September 4, reports of pre-election incidents featured on the elections portal (www.electionsportal.ge) were discussed by non-governmental organizations at a press-conference. Representatives of the following three NGOs – the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and Transparency International – Georgia talked about specific regions of Georgia with greatest number of violations as well as most frequent types of violations. One month prior to elections, the elections portal of NGOs already features reports of 301 incidents, including acts of pressure – total of 198 incidents, as well as 46 cases of vote-buying, 61 cases of use of administrative resources and 16 cases of various other types of violation. Analysis of incidents according to regions illustrates that the greatest number of violations has occurred in Kakheti (62 facts); significant number of violations have occurred in Imereti (49), Shida Kartli (44), Guria (29) and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (27). The elections portal features total of 43 incidents that have occurred in all ten districts of Tbilisi. According to individual districts, the greatest number of violations have occurred in Gori – 26 incidents; Gurjaani – 15; Dediplistskaro – 13; Lanchkhuti – 11; Kutaisi – 11; Kaspi – 10; Ozurgeti – 10; Lagodekhi – 9; Zugdidi – 9; Sachkhere – 9.
2012-09-05 10:57 See moreThe Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Georgian National Platform released the Statement on the Media Enviornment in Pre-Election Period in Georgia on August 29, 2012. The Statement is supported by more than 60 Non-Governmental organizations.
2012-08-30 14:50 See moreTBILISI – The National Democratic Institute (NDI), Jumpstart Georgia and three organizations that jointly initiated an online elections portal– the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and Transparency International-Georgia (TI-Georgia)– have made previous elections and voter list data available on http://data.electionportal.ge. The website shows results of each election conducted in Georgia since 2008 by a variety of indicators such as turnout, overall results, individual party results and more. The website presents the data through maps which enable analysis over different geographical levels which include regions, districts and precincts. This analysis can have a variety of applications such as helping to identify areas of low turnout in order to target voter mobilization efforts where they might be most effective.
2012-08-27 15:57 See moreGeorgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) will monitor the manifestation to be held by the coalition Georgian Dream on August 27, 2012 in Ambrolauri. The monitoring will be carried out within the frames of a long-term pre-election monitoring, which entails monitoring of public meetings organized by political parties as well as realization of freedom of assembly and manifestation. Monitors will observe all developments in Ambrolauri and throughout the regions related to organization of the August 27, 2012 assembly and mobilization and relocation of participants.
2012-08-27 07:14 See moreOn August 10, 2012, an initiative group of voters submitted necessary documentation in Kharagauli District Election Commission (DEC) for registration of an independent majoritarian candidate - Giorgi Glunchadze, including list of voters supporting the candidate. Having invalidated some of the signatures on the list, the DEC gave a two-day term to the initiative group to fill the void. The initiative group presented signatures requested by the DEC. The same day, court delivered a decision based on the motion filed by Zestaponi District Office of the Prosecutor to seize lists of voters supporting Giorgi Glunchadze and related documents from the DEC. On August 16, 2012, statement of Kharagauli DEC N48 was published on the website of the Central Election Commission (CEC), saying that registration of an independent candidate Giorgi Glunchadze had been suspended for an indefinite period of time, due to the fact that originals of documents necessary for registration of the candidate had been seized from the Commission.
2012-08-23 15:14 See moreGeorgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) will monitor the manifestation to be held by the coalition Georgian Dream on August 19, 2012 in Rustavi. The monitoring will be carried out within the frames of a long-term pre-election monitoring, which entails monitoring of public meetings organized by political parties as well as realization of freedom of assembly and manifestation.
2012-08-17 10:24 See moreGYLA studied decisions of Tbilisi City Court dated August 10 and August 11, 2012, warranting fining and impounding of movable and immovable property as well as intangible assets of leaders of the political coalition Georgian Dream - Bidzina Ivanishvili and Kakha Kaladze. Pursuant to the court's decision, the fines imposed on Kakha Kaladze and Bidzina Ivanishvili amounted to GEL 16 944 960 and GEL 20 243 827,5 respectively. In the process of analyzing the cases, a particular attention must be paid to evaluation of court's decisions. In view of the fact that acts of the State Audit Service lack validity, it is even more important for the court to act as a guarantor of balance and protection of rights and ensure fair and impartial examination of the case. But instead, decisions of court are characterized by loyalty to public agencies and fail to ensure a fair trial. It has once again been reaffirmed by final decisions delivered against Kaladze and Ivanishvili. Regrettably, such precedents have an adverse impact on reputation of judicial authority in general. GYLA has highlighted on numerous occasions multiple violations during court proceedings initiated under the law of Georgia on Political Union of Citizens, including unreasonable time for review of cases by court - 48 hours; making it impossible for the defense to prepare properly; a short period of time for appealing, which rules out any possibility to familiarize with minutes of the trial or the decision to be appealed. In addition to the noted problems, another acute issue in decisions delivered against Kaladze and Ivanishvili is unsubstantiated judicial decisions.
2012-08-17 08:42 See morePhysical force was exerted against a cameraman of Info 9 yesterday in Lanchkhuti, on August 15, 2012. Cameraman Davit Chavleishvili suffered injuries while carrying out his professional activities. Footage shows that a young man was intimidated by questions that the camera crew was asking while capturing on video-camera passengers of a mini-bus parked outside the local municipality. First he screamed at the journalist and then hit the camera with his hand in an attempt to stop the video recording. As a result of his actions, the cameraman of Info 9, Davit Chavleishvili suffered an injury in his face. Later he was taken to the hospital. Further, equipment of the agency has been damaged.
2012-08-16 20:18 See moreOn August 6, 2012, new order of the State Audit Service’s General Auditor was published, establishing a number of responsibilities for electoral subjects, broadcasters and newspapers. Specifically, under the Order electoral subjects have to pay costs of placement of paid political advertising on TV or in newspapers in advance, within a week. Further, electoral subjects, broadcasters and newspaper should provide records of payment envisaged by para.1 of this Order to the State Audit Service within no later than 24 hours after payment has been made. The Order adopted by the State Audit Service falls beyond the legal framework as regulation of procedures for agreements made by electoral subjects for placement of political ads on TV and in newspapers; type of payment made and amount paid does not fall under the purview of the agency. It is the right of parties to settle these issues and it does not fall under the scope of government’s regulation. The order cites several irrelevant Articles as legal grounds. According to these Articles, the agency is authorized to regulate procedures pertinent to transparency of information about party finances. Determining rules for conducting business relations and making payments is well beyond the authority to determine rules of transparency and falls outside legal frameworks. Further, these regulations contradict law and provide for unjustifiable prohibitions that apply to electoral subjects. In individual cases, they may also act as artificial barriers for electoral subjects. It is particularly noteworthy that the State Audit Agency did not provide any concrete grounds for the necessity of adopting the new regulations or a concrete goal that they serve to achieve.
2012-08-15 14:16 See moreWe, the campaign It Affects You Too member national NGOs would like to respond the critical developments during this difficult pre-election period, briefly sum up the existing circumstances and contribute to the improvement of the situation. Local NGOs have been monitoring pre-election processes and their compliance with applicable legislation since January 1, 2012. In this respect, work of the state agencies remains to be a key focus of our monitoring. Throughout this period, we have accumulated a rich material that allows us to provide a preliminary and general assessment of the election environment in the country. Indeed, activities pursued by state agencies towards the work of political parties are unprecedented in terms of their intensity and scale. Cases examined by us allow us to conclude that the work of state agencies from the pre-election point of view is too subjective, aimed at harassment of oppositional parties and the main oppositional coalition in particular. A number of serious allegations on about vote-buying, illegal contributions or use of administrative resources by the ruling party remains without a response. In the beginning of its work, the State Audit Service was trying to make its activities look more or less impartial, which they are no longer even trying to. Small-scale and inadequately small number of decisions against the ruling party, while major violations have gone without any response, lead us to believe that the State Audit Service is actually serving as yet another leverage in hands of the ruling party and its work falls short of the principle of political neutrality, as illustrated by the most recent election of the General Auditor. We also remember that scandalous information made public by former coordinator of the political union United National Movement during a TV program Without Accreditation aired on Maestro TV about violations committed by the ruling party, including about employing coordinators of the party in public service. Further, although we filed applications soliciting information to verify the issue, in gross violation of the Georgian law, Tbilisi City Hall and Sakrebulo has not provided any information.
2012-08-10 13:39 See more