Judge Invalidates Results of Electronic Districts in Tsalka and Tetritskaro
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Judge Vladimer Khuchua of the Tetritskaro court confirmed a violation of vote secrecy and upheld the claim made by the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA). The lawsuit sought to invalidate all electronic voting districts in Tsalka and Tetritskaro due to violations of voter privacy.
In Tsalka, there are 39 precincts, while Tetritskaro has 40. Georgian Dream received 71% of the votes in Tsalka and 67% in Tetritskaro. Following the judge's ruling, the results of all electronic districts involved in the Tsalka and Tetritskaro polls were declared invalid.
Before announcing the decision, Judge Khuchua conducted an experiment in the courtroom, requesting a vote counting machine, ballot paper, a marker, and a framed envelope. A technical check revealed that when ballots were placed in the machine, the choice made on the back was visible.
"Today, we discussed the issue only regarding secrecy, and the court clearly and unequivocally believes that, based on the evidence examined at the court session with this election machine, vote counting machine, and this election ballot, the voter did not have a guarantee of vote protection and vote secrecy. We are talking about a guarantee here. As for the Tsalka District Commission, the court determined that there were violations, including serious mishandling of complaints, certain types of manipulations, the entry of two people into the area, and obstacles to observers. The court unequivocally believes that such reliance on the election process is not free, and therefore all these results should be declared invalid," stated Judge Khuchua.
According to GYLA, this ruling sets a new precedent for protecting voters' right to secrecy. "By random selection, the court checked the ballots of several districts in Tsalka and Tetritskaro, where it was confirmed that traces of a marker are visible on the back of the ballots, which violates the right to vote secrecy. The judge, who himself conducted the verification process, observed the obvious fact of violation of confidentiality when placing the ballot in the vote counting machine," GYLA remarked.
This case represents the only successful resolution among 24 lawsuits filed by GYLA, which aims to cancel the results from all electronic polling stations, totaling 2,263 stations.
