Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori
On May 30, representatives of the Human Rights Center and Transparency International –Georgia observed the municipal elections in several villages of Shida Kartli. The observers actively worked in the village of Didi Ateni, Tiniskhidi, Pkhvenisi, Nikozi and Variani polling stations from the early morning.
By 11:00 am, the observer of the Alliance for Georgia Teimuraz Chighladze had already left the polling station in Didi Ateni village. He said he was threatened with firing his family members from jobs and with planting narcotic substances on him personally.
The situation was complicated in the polling station in Pkhvenisi village where the commission members and observers did not let the representative of the Alliance for Georgia Nina Shalashvili to work properly. Nina Shalashvili was regulating the flow of the people and in fact observed all violations at the PS. More precisely, she said that other observers at the PS also dropped extra ballot papers in the box.
“They threatened me that my father will lose parish unless I stop complaining. Every commission member psychologically oppressed me. They told me nasty things. There is complete chaos here. The commission members and observers drop extra ballot papers. I do not have right to file complaint. The observers at the PS do not write complaints,” Nina Shalashvili told us; her father is a clergyman – Father Gedeon.
At our arrival at the PS, the observer was dismissed from the PS: we decided to write a complaint because the rights of the person who regulated the flow of people were breached. However, the commission chairperson and members insisted and the secretary did not register our complaint. Consequently, we requested administrative liability of the deputy chairperson and secretary at the Pkhvenisi PS.
Observers of Transparency International – Georgia witnessed that unregistered person voted at the polling station in the village of Shindisi in Gori district. More precisely, the IDPs from Patara Liakhvi Gorge, who were not registered at the PS, dropped ballot papers in the box. Commission chairperson rebuked the commission member who was appointed by the district election commission (DEC).
We found 6 mini-buses outside the PS building when we arrived at the polling station in the village of Nikozi; the mini-buses served the voters. We also observed that unregistered IDPs voted. The registrar was “rebuked” for that.
We attended the counting process in the village of Variani. It showed that less people signed in the journal than the number of the ballot papers in the box. During the first counting, the number of the signatures was less by 9; consequently the votes were counted repeatedly and the difference was 7.
Commission members tried to make a deal with the representatives of the Human Rights Center and Transparency International – Georgia and said they would balance the protocols if we do not complaint about it. The representatives of the famous organizations, of course, declined their “offer”. The commission members did not fill in the final protocols before 3:00 am in Variani village because they wanted to balance the protocols. The chairman of the Gori DEC Giorgi Khorbaladze and official representative of the Central Election Commission (CEC) arrived at the precinct. They told the commission members they had to include all data in the final protocol and explained to them how to “balance” the final protocols.
“As we see, there are fewer signatures in the journal than ballot papers and in most cases it does not happen so. Thus you should write explanation letter why you cannot count the signatures and then draw up correction protocols. Is it clear?” said the CEC representative to the commission members and then told the representative of the Human Rights Center.
“I will write a complaint on you and you will delete all your recordings in front of these people, then you can publish it wherever you want,” said the representative of the CEC Chairperson Zurab Kharatishvili. We know only her name – Ms. Tiniko.
At 3:45am the CEC representatives left the PS; the secretary did not foresee the recommendations of the “boss” and balanced the protocols. More precisely, they equaled the number of signatures with the number of the ballot papers; however, they still made mistake. More precisely, according to the final protocol of the majoritarian polls 930 voters took part in the elections; in the final protocol of the proportional polls 928 people voted. In fact, in the final protocol of the precinct 921 voters had signed the journals.
The representative of the Human Rights Center handed the complaint to the commission secretary with the request to annul the unbalanced protocols on the same night. Later the DEC did not satisfy his complaint. The DEC relied on the explanations of the commission members which stated that “less number of the signatures in the journals might be caused by the special carelessness of any registrar.” The author of the complaint will try to appeal the decision of the DEC at the CEC.
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