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.

In addition to reports of non-governmental organizations, the portal also features reports of individual citizens. All citizens are able to report alleged violation to the portal by sending a toll-free SMS to number 2500. It was noted at the press-conference that ISFED plans to conduct an advertising campaign in central and regional TV stations for raising citizens’ awareness about the portal.

Reports of incidents featured on the elections portal are also available on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ElectionsPortal) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/ElectionsPortal). The portal also allows sharing individual incidents on social networks.

The elections portal is a joint initiative of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and Transparency International – Georgia. It aims at providing interested parties with comprehensive and diverse information about 2012 parliamentary elections, as well as pinpointing reports of incidents from the three NGOs in pre-election period, on and beyond the Elections Day on the incidents map. In addition to reports of incidents during the elections period, the portal also features information about results of previous elections and voters’ lists. The portal’s web address is www.electionsportal.ge and it is administered by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy.

The project is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and funded by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) as well as the program Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC) implemented by the East-West Management Institute. Open Society Georgia Foundation rendered initial support to the portal.