Election Commission extends time to voters in coronavirus self-isolation to request ballot box service

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.

The voters who were officially registered as self-isolated by the country's Health Ministry were able to phone CEC between October 24 and 26 and request ballot box service on election day. 

The CEC reported earlier today that the registration was prolonged until 18:00 of October 27 due to the high-demand. 

Transparency International NGO has welcomed the CEC’s decision. However, the NGO predicts that ‘thousands of votes may be lost’ due to shortcomings in the registration. 

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The NGO says that many of the voters in self-isolation who requested the ballot box service from CEC were not officially registered. 

The Health Ministry list comes with shortcomings and  many individuals who are actually in self-isolation are not listed. If the individuals are not listed as self-isolated by the Health Ministry, the CEC is unable to meet their requests for ballot boxes,” said the NGO. 

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The NGO says that automatic registration of individuals in self-isolation and opening special polling stations in quarantine zones or in hospitals ‘would have removed a wide range of problems.’