Central Election Commission: recount of ballots did not affect results of election run-offs
A total of 1,024,406 out of 2,088,722 voters participated in Georgia’s local municipal election run-offs, which amounted to 49.9% of eligible voters. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia has concluded its recount of votes in 201 constituencies, as part of recent electoral reforms obliging the body to recount a certain number of votes for verification, and stated that it did not affect the preliminary results of the second round of municipal elections.
The CEC reported yesterday that detailed results of the recount will be published today.
Today, at 17:00 recounts of ballot papers will be launched at tabulation centers. #CEC Chairperson addressed DECs with an important initiative/recommendation to reveal and recount results of 7-7 polling stations instead of mandatory 5 polling stations.
— CEC of Georgia (@cecgovge) November 1, 2021
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The ballot recounting process was conducted in a transparent manner, which could be monitored by all authorised persons - both the media and observer organisations and representatives of election subjects,” spokeswoman of the CEC, Natia Ioseliani, stated.
The CEC has addressed the district election commissions with a new recommendation to recount the ballots in polling stations where the vote-counting process was not recorded on camera.
A total of 292 polling stations in Georgia were not provided with a camera, from which the district election commission will randomly select several for the recounting process.
Vote recount became a successful experience in election process of #CEC. It contributed to the increased transparency of this process and significantly raised the trust. We issued recommendation for the DECs to recount ballots at specific PECs.
— CEC of Georgia (@cecgovge) November 1, 2021
➡️https://t.co/yzENQ8vUtv pic.twitter.com/tAtcowRqLB
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party MP Mamuka Mdinaradze has claimed that a large number of votes ‘were stolen’ from the ruling party's mayoral candidate for Tbilisi, Kakha Kaladze, and added to his opponent, the United National Movement candidate Nika Melia, in the Mtatsminda election district.
A stack of 10 ballot papers was stolen and added to Melia’s side,” Mdinaradze said.
Overall, the votes of 812 of 3,664 district election commissions were recounted after the October 2 municipal elections; more than 66% of the results remained the same.
Based on the final results of the local self-government election run-offs held on October 30, the opposition has won the majority in seven out of 64 municipalities – Batumi, Zugdidi, Martvili, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha, Rustavi and Senaki, while the ruling party has won the proportional part of the race with 47% on October 2.
The ruling party mayoral candidates have won in all self-governing cities and municipalities except for Tsalenjikha, where the UNM party candidate, Giorgi Kharchilava, won with 51.11% over the GD’s Goga Gulordava.
A total of 1,024,406 out of 2,088,722 voters participated in Georgia’s local municipal election run-offs, which amounted to 49.9% of eligible voters.