NGOs Highlight Major Violations on the Election Day
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, November 30
The voting process at most of the polling stations throughout Georgia was conducted generally in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the law. However, during the voting process, violations of voters’ secrecy of vote remained as the most problematic, - the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) said.
The NGO reported that outside of polling stations mobilization of coordinators and supporters of Georgian Dream ruling party and the party endorsed presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili were at “massive scale”.
“They were tracking the voters who came to the precincts, which is the continuation of an infamous malpractice of attempted influence on voters’ will,” ISFED reported.
“Cases of violations of secrecy of vote on Election Day and practice of tracking the voters once again highlight the problems related to the environment of intimidation and harassment during the pre-election period and its negative effect on the electoral process,” ISFED says.
The Transparency International Georgia says that according to its observations, the second round of the 2018 Presidential elections was held in a largely peaceful environment, without serious violent incidents.
“Nevertheless, the Election Day showed new problematic trends related to alleged vote buying, violation of the secrecy of vote and registration of voters through unacceptable means,” TI Georgia says.
“During the whole day, there was a visible mobilization of presidential candidate coordinators outside of nearly all precincts, which created a tense atmosphere. Moreover, our observers noticed that most of them were standing outside with cars and people could be periodically spotted getting in and out of the cars on. In four cases, according to our observers, the voters received money in the cars. In one more case, there was an alleged instance of vote-buying within the precinct,” TI Georgia says.
The NGO stated that:
The Prosecutor’s Office should investigate all alleged attempts to buying votes;
The Central Election Commission should take appropriate measures in regard to the low qualification of the commission members;
The Central Election Commission should ensure favorable conditions for observers and prevent any aggressive behavior by the commission members;
Political parties should refrain from registering and mobilizing their supports through methods that can be perceived as restricting the free expression of the will of the voters.
