NGOs call for recount of election results in over 100 polling stations throughout Georgia
District election commissions must review the submitted complaints within two days. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Local NGOs have called for a recount of election results in over 100 polling stations following the parliamentary elections on October 31.
Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has appalled the results of 61 polling stations throughout Georgia, while the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association has appealed the results in 117 polling stations.
TI says that appeals have been written in 19 out of 30 district election commissions.
The organisations want to cancel results of 60 polling stations and recalculate votes, while it wants to cancel the results of one of the polling stations in Marneuli, as based on their observers’ videos falsification took place, says the organisation noting that the same persons voted for several times at the polling station.
Meanwhile, Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) wants to cancel results of 117 polling stations and recalculate votes.
Most of the appealed protocols show disbalances and / or correction of the summaries of election results," GYLA said.
District election commissions must review the submitted complaints within two days.
About 3,800 polling stations were open on October 31 throughout Georgia.
The Georgian Central Election Commission has responded to a report that in eight per cent of polling stations, ballot papers outnumbered voters’ signatures on the list.
“Georgia’s parliamentary elections were competitive and, overall, fundamental freedoms were respected”, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said in its preliminary statement today.
The Central Election Commission of Georgia should recount votes in eight per cent of polling stations where there were more ballots than registered voters, says the chief executive director of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Elene Nizharadze.
Local NGO Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) says the analysis of 170 election-related violations and 46 complaints ‘makes it clear that the Georgian parliamentary elections were a step back compared with the 2016 parliamentary elections’.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland has released a statement on the parliamentary elections held in Georgia on October 31, which reads that 'we share the assessments of international organisations' that the elections were competitive and fundamental freedoms, international standards were respected, but the statement also draws attention to 'worrying reports on irregularities and violations'.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili spoke about the recent parliamentary elections with the Central Election Commission (CEC) chairperson Tamar Zhvania earlier today. President Zurabishvili thanked Zhvania and her team for holding 'free, fair and just' elections amid the coronavirus pandemic.
District election commissions have received 1,561 appeals as of now related to the parliamentary elections held on October 31 in Georgia, said Head of Human Resources Department at the Central Election Commission (CEC) Giorgi Kalandarishvili.