Georgian NGOs call on political parties to resolve election-related crisis through dialogue

In a joint statement Transparency International Georgia (TI), the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) say that although Georgia’s parliamentary elections were a clear setback for the country and the worst elections held under the Georgian Dream government, they believe that there is still a chance to find a way out of the political impasse through dialogue.

The statement reads that election day was marked by a large number of incidents involving attacks on journalists and representatives of monitoring organizations. 

Voter bribing, and confrontation outside the polling station were also observed. 

Serious problems included inaccuracies in the vote tally summaries - specifically, a high rate of imbalance unseen in the last few elections, corrections, and the filling out of corrected protocols in an opaque manner and without unbiased review. Against the backdrop of these problems, the unfounded refusal by the district electoral commissions to uphold the complaints requesting ballot recounts and a number of further circumstances have raised questions among a large part of the public regarding the trustworthiness and the legitimacy of the election results”, reads the statement.

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In the statement the NGOs also mentioned the actions of law enforcers on November 8 against demonstrators gathered in front of the Central Election Commission, who were demanding repeat parliamentary elections and dismissal of CEC chair Tamar Zhvania.

The actions of the law enforcers against the demonstrators gathered in front of the CEC on the night of November 8 could not withstand any criticism and aggravated the current situation.

The law enforcers used water cannons to disperse demonstrators who marched from central Rustaveli Avenue to the building of the CEC after ruling Georgian Dream party leaders rejected opposition demands.

Civilians started to throw stones in response to the police, which had been mobilised around the CEC while the demonstrators were marching. Police continued to use water cannons in order to prevent them from entering the CEC area.

TI Georgia, the GYLA and ISFED state that in order to preserve stability in Georgia, it is important for politicians to resolve at the negotiating table the questions recounting the ballots in the problematic precincts based on specific criteria and of the fair conduct of the runoffs.

NGOs say each party should do its best to help the country avoid a most serious crisis which would be further aggravated by the rising pandemic and economic recession.