02 Oct, 2021
As of this moment, we can say that the elections are taking place in a very calm environment. We have recorded a total of five incidents, or more precisely, incidents at five precincts. All five cases concerned verbal disputes – no violence has taken place. These five precincts amount to 0.13 percent of 3,743 precincts. Interestingly, we had cases where Ms. Ana Tsitlidze, Ms. Elene Khoshtaria, and Giorgi Mumladze, who is the head of the United National Movement’s Marneuli headquarters, were involved. These people featured in almost all of the five cases. As regards violations that we have identified: At Electoral Precinct 9 in Kobuleti, Iona Ananidze, who is number three on the United National Movement’s list, is on the premises of the electoral precinct and refuses to leave the premises, which is a violation. Also, at Electoral Precinct 27 in Sarpi, the United National Movement candidate summoned one of the observers from a nongovernmental organization from the precinct, which indicates their connection with the said nongovernmental organization. This does not constitute a violation, however it once again confirms our investigation, when we said that political organizations are represented under the guise of certain nongovernmental organizations.
In the village of Arboshiki in Dedoplistskaro, a voter queue controller asked voters to circle number five, which is a violation. At Electoral Precinct 14 in Lanchkhuti, the rule on displaying posters and campaigning near an electoral precinct has been violated. Also in Lanchkhuti, near Electoral Precinct 9, the father of the candidate of the For Georgia party, who is a former policeman, is standing near the Electoral Precinct and controlling voters and passers-by. In Tbilisi, at Electoral Precinct 66 in Vake, the coordinators of the United National Movement are in a parked car, in violation of the 100-meter radius, and controlling the voters from there.
At Electoral Precinct 9 in Lanchkhuti, the rule on displaying posters and campaigning was violated by the For Georgia party. In total, including this briefing and the previous one, we have identified four cases of voter tallying inside the 100-meter radius by the opposition, four cases of violating the principle of assembly inside the 100-meter radius, four cases of illegal campaigning, and two other types of violations. It is also important to note the erroneous information being disseminated through the media and the social media. Recently, the CEC held a briefing concerning Electoral Precinct 124 in Kutaisi, regarding which we saw that an entire campaign was launched on the social media, with information concerning a protocol being filled out in advance. In reality, there was a mistake, the secretary at the electoral precinct made a mistake and filled out the control protocol – he/she though that he/she was filling out a control protocol and filled out the real protocol instead. As you know, the CEC also stated that there were signatures from the representatives of several parties, i.e., there as no malicious intent here, this was a mistake and, of course, this mistake will be corrected.
Also, according to the United National Movement, one of the precincts in Dedoplistskaro contained an unsealed ballot box, and they claimed that the voting process must be suspended there because of this. In reality, the box was sealed with a small seal, and this took place with the participation of all commission members. When they checked and found that the box was not open, it was resealed with the participation of all members of the commission, so there is no major violation here either.
Finally, in connection with Electoral Precinct 19 in Lagodekhi, Radio Liberty reported that people are voting in pairs. While this fact is true, it is also manipulative in the sense that there has been no violation here. A voter had an eyesight-related problem. There were two such cases. In both cases, because the voters themselves had a problem, the commission allowed a helper to accompany the voters in the cabins.
These are the violations that we have identified as of this moment. I would like to call on our voters once again to be active. We have a pretty good level of activity. Our data show that the Georgian Dream will attain a convincing victory for the eighth time now. However, this requires everyone to be active because as we know, the second half of the day is precisely when our opponents will start mobilizing their voters very actively, and we see this in various polling stations, especially in Tbilisi. We have also shown you that their coordinators are around the electoral precincts, so I call on our voters – today is their day to have a say in who should be in power in the municipalities.