“Government Improved Methods of Election Rigging”

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

2010 municipal elections have become topic of urgent discussions from the very beginning. Despite that, today in Kutaisi, like entire Georgia, the ruling party celebrates the victory. The government assessed the municipal elections as a step towards the democracy like all previous elections. The voters (not to say anything about the opposition parties) have different opinion; they think the reality is completely different – the elections were carried out through serious violations in the country and Kutaisi was not exception at all.

The number of the complaints filed to the Kutaisi District Election Commission (DEC) # 50 demonstrates the negative position of the society. The complaints were filed to the DEC from the very beginning of the elections. According to the complaints, most of which were filed by the non-governmental organizations, the elections were not very peaceful in Kutaisi (as it is claimed by the government); various violations were observed.

According to the complaints, the observers of the NGOs were insulted by the commission members; unregistered people were voting at the polling stations (PS); four ballot papers were dropped in one envelope; unsigned and unsealed envelopes were submitted to the DEC; observers were oppressed; etc. Despite all these, the representatives of the DEC # 59 think that the elections were carried out with minor violations in Kutaisi; though all in all it was democratic and transparent.

“It is interesting would the governmental officials have similar position if the opposition parties had won the elections? Of course, they would not. In the elections of 2003 (which was followed by the protest demonstrations of the current authority and later by the Rose Revolution), ex-president Shevardnadze did not do anything more – he won the elections by unsealed and unsigned envelopes. Although “bomb violations” were not observed during the municipal elections, it was rigged. It is not strange because our government has improved the rigging methods; they have serious experience in it,” said Marina Gorgadze from Kutaisi.

The number of complaints filed to the Kutaisi DEC confirms the protest of ordinary Kutaisi residents; most complaints were filed by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA). In almost every polling station in Kutaisi (# 13, # 102, # 89, # 125, etc) the observers of the GYLA protested together with the observers of other monitoring organizations. So-called “election carousel” was also observed which was later protested by the opposition parties.

“The government did not refuse to use the already well-appropriated method of election rigging and started carousel,” stated the representatives of the Kutaisi office of the Alliance for Georgia. They clarified that local government bribed the drivers of public transport; they stopped working for 100 GEL and served the National Movement all day long.

“It was very hot on May 30 and many people were lazy to go to the elections. When mini-buses came to pick them up, the people did not refuse and voted for the party which served them by mini-buses. Besides that, in one case my neighbor arrived at the PS and found signature in his box. Despite that he voted. The person, who had signed instead him, had also marked the ballot paper. Similar facts were observed in other PS too; but I do not know how everything finished,” said Mikheil Shavlakadze in his interview with the Human Rights Center.

55 466 residents of Kutaisi took part in the 2010 municipal elections. According to the DEC # 59, 34, 35 % of voters took part in the elections. It demonstrates that turnout of the voters in Kutaisi was the lowest throughout Georgia.