'Georgian Dream' takes initiative to hold elections electronically in Georgia
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
The ruling "Georgian Dream" party is taking the initiative to hold elections electronically in Georgia. The chairman of "Georgian Dream" Irakli Kobakhidze made the relevant announcement at a briefing held at the party's office.
According to him, the mentioned decision will be one of the most important constituent parts of the election reform, which will minimize and reduce the problem of manipulation of election results. According to the initiative, voter registration and voting will be carried out using electronic equipment in the majority of polling stations, including all cities and large settlements, which will cover at least 70 percent of voters.
Kobakhidze explained the advantages of their initiative to hold elections electronically. As he said at the briefing, the implementation of the initiative will end speculations, including the so-called carousel principle and other manipulations.
"Regarding this initiative, in particular, all non-radical parliamentary political parties are included in the working group, their initiative was also to discuss this issue. Therefore, we are sure that these initiatives will be supported by them. We have a successful experience in implementing electronic technologies. By-elections were held in 8 precincts in the same Batumi. Voting was also done electronically. This initiative has many positive and no negative sides. Therefore, we expect that this initiative will be highly appreciated. In any case, an objective observer will not be able to make another assessment in this regard," said Kobakhidze.
According to him, if the initiative is implemented, the official results of the elections will be published sooner. As Irakli Kobakhidze said, "3 radical parties are not participating in the process".
"Exit polls have often become the subject of manipulation. As you know, four exit polls are announced and they are all different. Exit polls will no longer be necessary, official election results will be fully available to the public at 9 o'clock. In addition, the issue of invalid ballots, about which there has been much speculation, will be resolved. The imbalance in the protocols will be corrected, etc. This will be a very important component of the reform, and we are sure that an objective observer will give a very high rating to this initiative. As for other points, we have the same approach to all points. We opened the door as much as possible for all subjects, all political parties, however, you know that 3 radical parties are not participating in the process. Our door is absolutely open. As far as non-governmental organizations are concerned, there is a simple "red line" that has to do with standing on stage and making political demands. There are 3 or 4 non-governmental organizations of this type, which came out directly with political demands. Of course, their involvement in this process would be absolutely unnatural. The door is open for all other non-governmental organizations," stated Kobakhidze.
According to the chairman of Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, elections may be held electronically in large precincts, but not in small precincts.
As Kobakhidze explained at the briefing, after the initiative to hold elections electronically, questions on 10% and 20% will be removed.
"Why do we say 70%? It's likely to be much higher, 80%-90%, but there will be small polling stations where implementing the hardware is simply not cost-effective. There are precincts consisting of 30 voters not only abroad, but also in Georgia. There is no rational implementation of electronic equipment, especially since the number of voters as a whole is very small. About 10% will actually be discussed. As soon as this equipment is introduced in 70%-80%-90%, naturally, questions on 10% and 20% will be removed. As for overseas precincts, there are often 10-20 people voting per precinct, it can be done there too, however, how cost-effective will it be to bring the equipment there when the number of voters is not large...Let's see, naturally, everything will be discussed. In large districts, it can be conducted electronically, but not in small districts", said Kobakhidze.
In addition, Kobakhidze noted that "this is not about voting remotely, from home". According to Kobakhidze, the issue of remote voting, including in the case of representatives of the Georgian diaspora, is associated with great risks.
Kobakhidze explained that the initiative to hold elections electronically implies participation in voting at polling stations through the equipment, and the risks of remote voting should be weighed.
