In Georgia, three NGOs lodge 102 claims on violations at elections

The "International Society of Fair Elections and Democracy", the "Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia" and the Movement "Multinational Georgia", which monitored the course of local elections in Georgia, lodged, by the moment of the end of voting, 102 claims to district and constituency electoral commissions.

As stated by Tamar Khidasheli, head of the "Associations of Young Lawyers of Georgia", her NGO was engaged in monitoring elections in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi and lodged 30 claims into local electoral commissions.

"In particular, we demand to nullify voting results at five polling stations in Batumi - at Nos. 16, 28, 41, 23 and 27, where we observed facts of voting under counterfeit documents or instead of other persons. Also, we demand to nullify voting results obtained with travel ballot-boxes - at one station in Kutaisi, and at one - in Tbilisi," Ms Khidasheli said.

Eka Siradze, leader of the "International Society of Fair Elections and Democracy", has noted that her organization lodged 32 claims into local electoral commissions.

"In the course of monitoring at 1100 polling stations, we have fixed six facts of pressure on voters, three cases of attempting to hamper observers, and 33 violations of the election procedure," said Ms Siradze.

Besides, according to her story, 11 attempts were registered to break the process of voting, including with the use of a travel ballot-box. Five discrepancies in appendices to the main voters' lists and six facts of mismatch of the numbers of ballot-papers and voters were revealed. In nine cases device for marking or checking were out of order.

The Movement "Multinational Georgia" lodged 40 claims into electoral administrations.

As stated by Arnold Stepanyan, the head of the Movement, his organization demands to nullify the results at two polling stations - No. 25 in Satkhi village, Ninotsminda District, and No. 15 in Orkhi village, Akhalkalaki District.

In Satkhi an incorrect seal on ballot papers was fixed (it was cracked), and in Orkhi, according to the Movement, mass falsification of results was observed.

In particular, among the violations revealed in Samtskhe-Dzhavakheti, where Armenian population is compactly living, are the following: casting several ballot papers simultaneously, attempt of repeated voting, voting without an identification card, casting ballot papers into boxes by members of electoral commission, and an attempt to avoid marking after voting.

The NGO "International Transparency - Georgia", which monitored voting at SIZOs (pre-trial prisons), lodged no claims but noted deficiencies in the course of voting - absence of instructions on voting procedure at polling stations and voters' lists without indications of personal identification numbers.

"Out of 1184 persons kept in five SIZOs, only one man could vote, others couldn't do it, as they had no IDs on them," the "News-Georgia" Agency quotes Vakhtang Kobaladze, executive director of this NGO.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by some election observers about facts of refusal of members of electoral commissions to accept their claims. Thus, at polling station No. 47, Gurdzhaani District, it was found, at opening the ballot-box, that the control list had no signatures of the chairman, deputy chairman and secretary of the commission.

Mr Danelishvili, a member of the "Alliance for Georgia", complained that the chairman would not accept his complaint on absence of signatures. According to his story, if these signatures would appear, it would be done during the time his complaint was rejected.

International observers, as a whole, assessed positively the course of elections to local self-governments in Georgia. This was stated by the international observer Gunther Krug and EU's special representative in Southern Caucasus Peter Semneby.

By estimates of Nikolai Lozovik, secretary of the electoral commission of Belarus, the elections in Tbilisi passed in transparent and open atmosphere. According to his story, he fixed no violations at polling stations.

Svetla Dimitrova, chair of the electoral commission of Bulgaria, also noted that the elections passed in quiet conditions, and she had no serious remarks.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia reports about absence of any serious violations at elections, although a number of complaints were lodged to local and constituency electoral commissions by activists of political parties and Georgian observers from NGOs. All the complaints will be considered.