Unchanged press-release by Coalition “My Vote” (second evaluation of the Election Day) by 12:00:
The coalition observation mission of Georgian civil organizations – “My Vote” is observing the elections of the Parliament of Georgia on October 26 in all electoral districts throughout Georgia. The mission unites about 2000 people, among them, 150 citizens are involved in observing election stations opened abroad. The observers of the coalition observe the election process throughout Georgia in all electoral districts as well as in the CEC. 133 mobile groups are working in 73 electoral districts. During the day, observers regularly provide us with information about the process at the polling stations on election day, as well as about specific violations and incidents.
We present the results of the observation based on the information received from our observers regarding the voting process from 8:00 am to 11:00 am.
By 11:00 we had received information from 1029 districts. According to the information provided by the observers to “My Vote” during the period from the start of the voting until 11:00:
• Marking was not checked properly – in 49 areas;
• At the polling stations under our observation, where voting is conducted using electronic technologies, violations of voter verification rules were noticed in 8 stations;
• Violation of marking rules was observed in 68 districts;
• At the polling stations under our observation, where voting is conducted using electronic technologies, various types of issues related to electronic technologies were detected in 125 stations;
• “My Vote” observers were limited to freely observe the election process in 38 precincts.
General trends
The alarming trend of issuing more than one ballot per voter and placing it in a box continues. At the moment, a total of about 50 similar facts have been recorded in different electoral constituencies throughout Georgia. As mentioned in our earlier report, this trend creates high risks of falsification. Such cases will lead to the problem of determining the balance in summary reports. It is also possible that the aforementioned is aimed at artificially creating a basis for invalidating the results of the election precinct or at other types of manipulation.
The situation is still difficult at the polling station in Greece. Observers are not given the opportunity to observe the election process.
According to the information reported by “Formula” television company, representatives of “Edison Research” in Samegrelo and Kakheti are prevented from conducting exit poll polls on the current perimeter of the polling stations. There is an aggressive attitude towards them from the representatives of the election administration.
At the moment, 34 complaints and 43 notes have been submitted in the record book regarding the violations observed at the polling stations.
Remarkable incidents:
• Cases of passing more than one ballot and putting it in the box
In the last 2 hours, there were 23 cases of issuing more than one ballot per voter. Cases of issuing more than one ballot were recorded in the 2nd precinct of the 64th district in Samegrelo, in the 14th, 15th, 17th districts in Kakheti, in the 20th district in Kvemo Kartli, in the 79th, 81st and 83rd districts in Adjara, Tbilisi. In districts, in Racha-Lechkhumi – 47 districts, in Samtskhe Javakheti – 37th and 39th districts, in Shida Kartli – 32 districts.
Two ballots were slipped into the vote counting machine in the 8th precinct of the 2nd district of Tbilisi.
In the 3rd precinct of the 81st district, the voter colored one specific subject instead of the test, to which the registrar did not respond.
Disruption of observer activities
In the 69th precinct of Marneuli, our observer was physically assaulted because they were recording the casting of ballots with a video camera.
Disruptions to the process of observation for observers are still evident throughout Georgia, among them similar facts were revealed: in the 32nd and 1st election precincts of the 64th district of Senaki, in the 14th precinct of the 21st district of Gardabani, in the 5th precinct of the 81st district of Kobuleti .
Cases of expulsion of our observers were also revealed. Specifically: our observers were expelled from the 46th and 41st districts of the 5th district of Tbilisi, from the 1st district of Meshide district and from the 15th district of Gardabani (21.15). Also, an observer of the “United National Movement” was expelled from the 2nd precinct of the 79th district of Kobuleti because of making a remark.
There were cases of refusal to register a complaint in the 9th precinct of the 21st district in Kvemo Kartli, and in the 46th precinct of the 5th district in Tbilisi.
Observers are not given the opportunity to observe at the polling stations in Athens.
• Violation of secrecy of vote
Since the opening of the precinct until now, in a number of precincts of Georgia, the facts of the presence of more than one voter in the voting booth have been revealed. There are such cases, for example, in the 27th precinct of Kareli electoral district; In the second precinct of the 79th district of Batumi, the chairman of the commission followed a blind voter into the voting booth, which is an action prohibited by law.
In the 7th precinct of the 17th district of Telavi, voters intentionally violate the secrecy of their vote many times.
• Defects in the operation of electronic technologies
There are still cases of technical malfunctions throughout Georgia. In particular, the verification and vote counting machines are working with errors in a number of precincts, for example: one of the vote counting machines was not working in the 8th and 15th election precincts of the 67th district of Zugdidi.
There was a case of power outage in district 46 of the 5th district of Tbilisi.
• Agitation at the polling station
In Akhalkalaki, in three districts of the 20th district (1, 2, 62), agitation for the benefit of “Georgian Dream” is fixed. In the 41st precinct of Gardabani (22.41) there was an agitation by the members of the commission in favor of the “Georgian Dream”.
• Information received from the precincts abroad
As for the election precincts opened abroad, the observer of the coalition is not given the opportunity to observe the 38th precinct of Athens. The commission does not give the observer the possibility of video recording. There is a tense situation and overcrowding. The coalition will distribute video and audio material depicting the overcrowding and tense situation.
We appeal to the Central Election Commission to provide timely and appropriate information to the members of the commission and voters about the facts of transferring and placing more than 1 ballot per voter and the measures to be taken for their prevention.
Observers of the observation mission “My Vote” will provide us with photos of the summary report throughout the night, which will be published step by step and will be publicly available on the website WeVote.ge. On the same website, photos of the preliminary results of the voting sent by our observers (consolidated final report) from the polling stations where the elections are held using electronic technologies will be available. The publication of the extract of the preliminary results and the photos of the summary reports on the “My Vote” website allows any citizen to verify the correspondence of the data officially recorded by the CEC with the official documents obtained by the observers at the precincts.
