How will Georgians vote in the parliamentary elections given the pandemic?
Voters will be allowed to enter polling stations only with face masks. If a voter has no face mask, he/she will be offered one on the spot. Disposable pens will be distributed on the site as well to prevent the possible transmission of the virus. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Central Election Commission (CEC) head Tamar Zhvania spoke to Rustavi 2 about how the vote in the parliamentary elections on October 31 will take place given the coronavirus.
Voters with fever will be allowed to vote during the upcoming parliamentary elections, Zhvania told Rustavi 2, noting that as voters only have to be inside buildings for about 15 minutes during the voting process, this does not present a very substantial risk of the coronavirus spreading.
Voters will be allowed to enter polling stations only with face masks. If a voter has no face mask, he/she will be offered one on the spot. Disposable pens will be distributed on the site as well to prevent the possible transmission of the virus.
Voting boots will not have curtains but they will be arranged in such a way as to ensure the secrecy of voting.
The process of marking voters will not be changed, as hand sanitisers do not remove the special liquid, said Zhvania.
The Central Election Commission has not yet decided on the conditions under which individuals infected with the coronavirus will vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The poll, which was conducted throughout the country (except for the two Russia-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali) between August 25 and September 7, says that 23 per cent of the 2,850 people surveyed has not decided yet who they will vote for if elections were held today.
A National Democratic Institute survey predicts 88 per cent of eligible voters will vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 31, noting 59 per cent have not decided yet who they will vote for.
The International Republican Institute (IRI) released its recent poll today, which says 33% of those surveyed would vote for the ruling Georgian Dream party if parliamentary elections were to be held this coming Sunday, while 16% said they would rather vote for the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party.
Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has called on opposition parties to unite their election lists for the upcoming, October parliamentary polls in Georgia.
Former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fog Rasmussen says that Russia is likely to target the upcoming October 31 parliamentary elections in Georgia. Rasmussen said that the future of Georgia should be decided by Georgians and not by the Kremlin, Europe or America. However, he said that many recent reports have proven that Russia is trying to interfere with Georgia’s democratic development.