Mari Otarashvili, Resonance
It was a bit calm in the polling station # 48 in the village of Tulari in Sagarejo district from the morning. However, in the afternoon a chain of violations started. The commission chairperson allowed several voters to take part in the elections without IDs. After I noted about the violation, the chairperson told me that it was no problem; the voter had left the ID at home and he could vote without document since he lived far from the PS.
The chairperson suggested to me to allow another voter to vote since he was old person. After that, I categorically demanded to file a complaint; as an observer I could comment to them but if the problem is not eradicated, I can file a complaint. When the chairperson did not consider my notes, I decided to write a complaint. However, the chairman Mamed Mamedov told me that the complaint could not change anything because either they would destroy it or the district election commission. After that, I observed a second violation.
The majority of the village population is ethnic Azeri people. When voters entered the PS, several commission members used to shout “Besh!” which means five in the Azeri language. I rebuked them for similar violations and the commission members stopped shouting. Later a local person decided to assist Azeri voters who could not read and write in Georgian language and he suggested to them to mark “Besh”.
The man accompanied every voter into the booth and helped them to mark number 5. When I rebuked him, he said those people could not read and write in Georgian and helped them. Then, he openly shouted at somebody:”Besh!” When I rebuked him again, commission members signed him and he kept silent. I thought the man was also commission member because he started to count the voters’ list and in accordance to the law only commission members can do it. When I asked him the name, he left the PS and never returned back. I even asked other commission members to bring him to the PS to find out who he was but nobody brought him. There were plenty of other violations in the PS. A person, sitting at the ballot box, (I could not estimate who he was – commission member or other person) checked a ballot paper of one of the voter and asked him whether he had marked “Besh”. Besides that, before the election procedures finished, we compared the number of voters who arrived at the PS and envelopes in the ballot box; the number of voters was less by ten. In addition to that, the election procedures were carried out very irregularly. The commission members sometimes forgot to mark voters, sometimes they forgot to check the marked voters. To explain their behavior the commission members said that they knew everybody and they had not been at the PS before.
All in all, commission members tried to hold peaceful elections; they calmly falsified the elections. One more incident occurred: a representative of the Christian-Democrat Party arrived at the PS; he did not say his name but simply introduced himself as a representative of the party. He had some argument with the commission members but they spoke in Azeri language and I could not understand the topic; he did not tell me the reason of their argument when I asked. As for voters, they were brought to the PS in groups.
I was the only observer at the PS. Even political parties did not have representatives except the National Movement representative, Giorgi Osikmishvili. There was one female observer who assisted the commission members in everything and tried to calm me down: “Everybody knows that they should mark number 5, so why are you worrying?” The commission chairman told me the same: “You can stop any person in the street and ask them whom they are supporting; everybody will tell you that they are voting for number 5. Why are you surprised?” The observer told me she could not cut the branch on which she was sitting. Secretary of the commission Karlo Martiashvili did not pay attention to the violations and suggested the same to me. As for complaints, they did not allow me to file any. When I took a form of the complaint to fill in, the chairperson tried to prevent me from filing the complaint; he looked very strict.
Before the representative of the Human Rights Center Ucha Nanuashvili arrived at the PS, the commission members did not allow me to file complaints. Finally I managed to write two complaints but the commission members did not seal it. Finally we succeeded and Ucha Nanuashvili made them to accept the complaint. The chairperson whispered to me: “Do you want me to be arrested?” Generally they tried not to speak impolitely with us but after complaints were filed, they were angry.
Short before the end of the Election Day, the situation became uncontrolled. Nobody was marked at the end of the day and they started to do it only after my remarks. Despite these violations, everybody said that the elections were carried out in calm atmosphere. However, they say that the situation was worse during previous elections.
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