According to our election monitoring, the second round of 2021 local self-government elections are being held in a largely peaceful environment. Vast majority of the electoral precincts, where our static observers are stationed, have been opened on time.
Our observers have reported up to 50 insignificant and relatively serious violations. We have filed 8 complaints. Noteworthy cases of serious violations are the following:
Violating the 100-meter radius from the precinct
Similar to our observations during the first round, party coordinators were observed within the 100-meter radius of the electoral precincts. This is a violation according to new amendments to the Electoral Code.
Noting down the identities of voters at the polling station
In many precincts at #79 Batumi, #17 Telavi and #20 Rustavi District Electoral Commissions, queue moderators were announcing loudly the voters’ identities, which was noted down by several persons present on the polling station.
Furthermore, at Electoral Precinct #66 of the #20 Rustavi District Electoral Commission, registrars were separately noting down the registration numbers of voters. According to them, this was done at the request of the Chairperson. After our observer’s remark, the registrar stopped noting down this information.
Noting down the voters was an important challenge during the 2017 local-self government elections, as this could be perceived as interfering in the will of the voter and was negatively assessed by local and international observer organizations.
Interfering in the work of an observer
At Electoral Precinct #7 of the #70 Poti District Electoral Commission, our observer was not allowed to monitor the process and was kicked out of the polling station. The Chairperson of this precinct, Zaveli Gaganidze, was threatening our observer with physical violence. Furthermore, district commission member Natia Chkvaidze, who was also present at this precinct, was also aggressive towards our observer.
Admitting voters to the polling station without the check of electoral ink
At Electoral Precinct #15 of the #69 Chkhorotsku District Electoral Commission, up to 10 voters were admitted to the polling station without checking them for electoral ink. We wrote a complaint and requested the disciplinary responsibility of the Chairperson and the commission member responsible for the regulation of the flow of voters.
Interfering in the work of journalists
Near the Electoral Precincts #81 and #5 of the #67 Zugdidi District Electoral Commission, Davit Mania, who is a journalist from TV Formula, was obstructed [1] from carrying out his journalistic work by coordinators of the Georgian Dream. Police were present on the scene but did not duly respond to the violation of the journalist’s rights.
Violations by observers from observer organizations
At Electoral Precincts in #67 Zugdidi District Electoral Commission, we observed a trend of more than one observer being registered from observer organizations “Green World” and “Public Union for Georgia First”. After a remark from our mobile group, the extra observers were released from the polling station.
At Electoral Precinct #12 of the #79 Batumi District Electoral Commission, an observer from the observer organization “Youth for European Future” was standing for a long time near the queue moderator and was asking and noting down the name and surname of every voter.
About the Observation Mission
Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has deployed up to 250 observers to monitor the second round of local self-government elections on October 30. Our static observers cover 170 precincts in 28 electoral districts throughout the country. In addition, 30 mobile groups are involved in election observation.
TI Georgia will hold the second press conference on the election monitoring in the media center at 19:30. The final assessment will be presented on October 31. Additional statements will be made upon necessity.
Moreover, on election day, TI Georgia will run a bilingual (Georgian and English) live blog on its webpage. All statements will also be posted on our Facebook [2]and Twitter [3]pages.
If you detect election-related violations please call us: 2 92 14 03.