Voters Arriving at Tbilisi Polling Stations Are Registered

Interpresnews

Voters arriving at Tbilisi polling stations are being registered. Interpresnews correspondent reported from the polling station in Saburtalo DEC # 29 that several young people are standing in front of the PS and checking voters' identities as they arrive.

A journalist asked what lists they are using to check voters and who they are but they did not answer; they left the area without naming themselves.

A voter clarified to Interpresnews that young women were registering voters though people do not know them.

National Movement’s coordinators are sitting in the cars near the PS # 29, which is located in the building of a public school, and they are registering people. When a journalist asked them why they were doing that, the party coordinators explained that they were not doing anything illegal. Interpresnews took photos at the PS. Similar occurrences were observed in other polling stations too.

National Movement’s spokesperson Chiora Taktakishvili called Interpresnews and clarified that their political party is implementing a so-called invitation campaign of voters to the polling stations, like during previous elections.

“We identified our supporters during the pre-election poll “Door to Door” so we're carrying out an invitation campaign of those people to polling stations. With this campaign we want to avoid incidents from Georgian Dream; we instructed campaign participants to stay at a reasonable distance from the PS and not to wear T-shirts with the party symbols so that they can't be held responsible for influencing voters and not to provoke supporters of Georgian Dream,” Chiora Taktakishvili said.

She added that the voters’ invitation campaign is carried out transparently, in accordance with the law.

Taktakishvili called upon media sources to inform them if participants of the invitation campaign break the law and the UNM will adequately respond to them.

Chiora Taktakishvili commented about transportation of voters in the regions and noted that UNM is transporting previously identified voters only in the regions where locals face some problems of traveling to get to polling stations.

“The UNM Campaign Fund funded this campaign and it is transparent. We send financial reports to the State Audit Office once in three weeks and this part of the campaign will be reflected in the final report of the UNM’s pre-election campaign,” Chiora Taktakishvili said.

The UNM spokesperson said their supporters are provided with transportation in mountainous regions where voters cannot easily reach polling stations and the same happens in every region.