Snap Presidential Elections caused many problems and one of them was unprepared NGOs and opposition parties. NGOs always suffered from the lack of human resources in regions and it reflected on the elections too.
Various non-governmental organizations sent those people to the district and village polling stations who could not even tell the full name of the organization; they could not even read the title of hiring organization on their badges. However the leading party lacked neither material nor human resources in any regions. Commission members from the opposition parties could not perform their duties in the polling stations and the observation mission was implemented by complete dilettantes. Similar situation assisted the leading party.
For example, five observers worked in the polling station # 23 in the village of Sviri in Zestafoni PEC # 51. “The observers were from the Human Rights Center, from Independent Trade Union of Georgian Teachers and Scientists-Lela Mumladze, the Center for Social Research-Maia Getsadze; Association Union for Future-Manana Getsadze and Lili Ghibradze from the Fair Elections.”
Before election process started it became obvious that it was useless to share the responsibilities among observers. Three observers out of total four, except Lela Mumladze, did not leave the warm room of the polling station all day long. They were observing the situation from there. Meanwhile, the village governor was promoting certain candidate outside the polling station. Robert Gurgenidze, the chairperson of the commission, replied to our remarks that similar statements should not be made inside the polling station but in the street you cannot prevent people from speaking.
Representative of the Fair Elections did not protest anything during the day; in the evening Victoria Akofashvili, coordinator from Zestafoni arrived at the polling station; though neither she observed any violations there. Similar situation could have been witnessed almost in every district.
We tried to find out with Teona Gogishvili, Imereti regional coordinator for the organization, how observers were selected by the Fair Elections in Imereti Region As it was cleared up local coordinators were selecting observers. One of the main principles for setting up a group of observers was-they should not be residents of the village they monitored. However, in the village of Sviri that principle was also breached.
Teona Gogishvili stated that selection criteria for observers will be worked out for the up-coming parliamentary elections and the problems of the previous polls would be taken into consideration. However, it is fact that during election campaigns NGOs and opposition parties usually have serious problems in regions.
Lela Khidasheli, Kutaisi
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