Coronavirus patients in hospitals or in isolation will be able to vote in elections
Special polling stations will be created within the jurisdiction of district election commissions in the municipalities which will be staffed by special groups, who will be in charge of delivering the ballot boxes to inpatients and isolated voters. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Coronavirus patients who are being treated in hospitals or are in isolation will be able to vote in the parliamentary elections in Georgia on October 31, announces the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia.
CEC spokesperson Ana Mikeladze said that for this reason special polling stations will be created within the jurisdiction of district election commissions in the municipalities which will be staffed by special groups, who will be in charge of delivering the ballot boxes to inpatients and isolated voters.
Each member of the special group, including all participants in the election process, will be equipped with appropriate outfits, in particular, a disposable robe, mask, gloves, protective shield. The recommendations of epidemiologists will be fully complied with, which will help prevent the spread of the virus. Special polling stations and their staff will have no contact with ordinary polling stations, which will ensure greater security and security of the process in general", Mikeladze said.
Mikeladze said that observers, media and representatives of the election participant parties will be able to follow the ballot boxes and observe the overall election process.
The recent election polls commissioned by Rustavi 2 TV channel which was conducted by British company Survation say that the ruling Georgian Dream party is expected to receive almost 56 per cent of votes, while polls commissioned by the opposition-minded TV channel Mtavari Arkhi says the party will receive 26,2 per cent of votes in the October 31 parliamentary elections.
Georgia has reported 1,186 new cases of coronavirus and seven deaths in the past 24 hours. Tbilisi is on the top of the list of the most hard-hit areas with 469 cases, followed by the country’s coastal Adjara region with 360 cases. Georgian hospitals are able to admit an additional 972 patients as of today. Georgia has had 18,663 cases of coronavirus since February 26, 2020.Since then 8,338 patients have recovered, while 143 have died. As of today 10,182 patients remain infected with Covid-19 in Georgia.
The ruling Georgian Dream party founder and chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili said at the presentation of party list and program earlier today that Georgia has never had such a long record of stable, peaceful and democratic development since the restoration of independence in 1990s.
The Georgian Dream ruling party is likely to receive 39 per cent of votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections in October, says the recently published US Edison Research’s polls, commissioned by Georgian channel Formula TV.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has stated that the government has no plans to declare a state of emergency or implement any other systemic restrictions amid the serious growth of coronavirus cases in Georgia. He said that the recent surge in the new infections was ‘absolutely expected’ and the government has taken ‘all measures’ to get prepared for a second wave of coronavirus.
Georgian epidemiologists say that daily coronavirus cases in Georgia may peak in the middle of November.
Georgia has reported 1,194 new cases of coronavirus and 15 deaths in the past 24 hours. Capital Tbilisi and Imereti region in the country’s west are on top of the list with 425 and 372 new cases respectively.
Independent majoritarian candidate for Didube-Chugureti district in Tbilisi and former member of High Council of Justice of Georgia Anna Dolidze says that the government ‘is preparing for the mass fabrication’ of the October 31 parliamentary elections with the use of ballot boxes.
The Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) has given additional time to voters who are in self-isolation due to the coronavirus to request ballot box service for the October 31 parliamentary elections.