Adventure of the “Landing Party” Sent to Lagodekhi District

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

I observed the municipal elections in the polling station of the Kabali village in Lagodekhi district. My first complaint, written at the PS # 18 on the violation of ballot procedures, caused noise. “Do not write complaint! You are irresponsible person. He is captious. Don’t you know other places except Kabali; why have you come only here?” – the chairperson of the polling station Adalat Sardarov was shouting at me. The first complaint was followed by second, third, fourth and finally I wrote 16 complaints only at that polling station.

Some people were registered, some were not. When I demanded to stop polling process, the chairperson broke the glass on the secretary’s table by fist. They drew up second protocol – “he made “commission members nervous” and please, send him out.”

Observer of the Human Rights Center journalist Marina Zardiashvili called me from the polling station # 22 in Karajala village and said extra ballot papers were dropped in the ballot box and; she asked me to go there immediately to video-record the violation.

Before I left the PS # 18, Sardarov told me – “swear that you were right to write a complaint on us.” He was holding the lighter in one hand and knife in another one. “Swear the god that you are right.” In order to calm down the situation, I told him I did not believe in the God but he did not stop –“Swear that you are right.” Other commission members also accompanied him and everybody shouted together: “Swear if you are right; otherwise Allah will burn you” and the chairman was bringing the burning lighter closer to me. When I smiled a commission member jumped on the registration table and shouted: “Why are you laughing, you whore?” At the noise, our other observers came into the polling station and helped me.

Before I arrived at the PS # 22 in Karajala, our observer called me from the PS # 18 and said certain people had tried to drop extra ballot papers in the ballot box. When he approached the harassers to stop the violation, they pushed him away.

At the polling station in Karajala village Marina Zardiashvili had already written a complaint. “Unidentified person dropped a ballot paper in the box and when he tried to do it second time, I grabbed the envelope from him because the chairperson did not react on it. However, they grabbed the ballot paper from me and dropped in the box.” Entering the polling station I saw that everybody – chairperson, secretary, commission members and observers - was arguing with Marina; the observers were from the organizations “Batumeli,” “Center of Democracy”, “Alliance of Public Initiatives,” etc. Chairman of the Lagodekhi district election commission (DEC) Ivane Zurikashvili had also arrived at the PS and was calmly watching the commission members cursing the observer of the Human Rights Center in Azeri language. Marina told me that she had written the complaint and demanded to stop the polling procedures at the PS. While I tried to convince commission members to register my complaint and was looking for the secretary, voters were entering the booths in couple; the DEC chairman did not protest it at all. “Here, husbands make decisions and some of them have 4-5 wives,” the commission explained to me.

In the search of the secretary I found a portable ballot box in the room of the school director; the box was not sealed up. Part of ballot papers and envelopes were there. When I asked Zurikashvili why the ballot box was in the room, he took it under his arm and took to the polling station. He demanded to abolish the results of the ballot box, but nobody listened to him. When I found the secretary and convinced him to register the complaint, we discovered that the record book was not tied up by string and it was no sense to register the complaint. I demanded to make a copy of the complaint and to seal it. At that time, almost entire personnel of the DEC had arrived at the PS; OSCE observers were also with them. They made a copy of the complaint but now they started to look for the seal. I found the commission chairperson Poliev, who is the director of the school where the polling station was located, in his room again. He had the seal in his pocket. I asked him to seal the copy of the complaint and he did. After that he read the complaint and started shouting: “Nasty guy… he interferes in the activities of the commission members. Draw up a protocol on him too.” Before that, they had already drawn up a protocol on Marina Zardiashvili. “We drew up the protocol on the observer of the Central Election Commission (wrong organization; she was an observer of the Human Rights Center) Marine Zardiashvili because she is carrying out illegal activities at the polling station; consequently, she shall be withdrawn from the PS because of providing incorrect information and drawing up wrong complaint. She claims that two and more people enter the ballot booth together, but the commission members have not noticed similar facts during the elections. Her accusations are false; in fact everything is going on normally and there is nothing problematic at the PS.” all 13 commission members signed the protocol.

According to the directives of the chairman and with the support of DEC members (the DEC member certain Aleko was particularly active), the protocol was drawn up on me too. “Gela Mtivlishvili entered the polling station together with 6-7 men; he insulted the voters by taking photos by camera and mobile phones initially from below, then from above, then from the side. We are Muslim people and taking photos of women from below is a serious sin. Besides that, they interfered in the election procedures; they did not allow people to vote for their candidate. They threatened us with various things. We evaluated their activities as undemocratic. They claimed people entered the booth several times but it is not right. They oppressed commission members to cause some incidents.”

On June 1, the session of the Lagodekhi DEC was scheduled where our complaints were to be discussed. As soon as I entered the administration building, the commission members of the polling stations from Kabali village started quarreling: “Why is he here? He is getting on our nerves. We are fed up with his complaints. Allah,” they shouted. As soon as I started taking photos, chairman of the PS # 21 in Uzuntala village jumped up and shouted: “He is captious.” Chairman of the PS # 22 in Karajala village Poliev joined him. “Initially, he took photos of the women from below at the polling station, and now he does the same here.”

Deputy Chairwoman of the DEC Lia Kikilashvili was insulting me enthusiastically. “Uneducated people live in Kabali village; you know it. What is the law? There are unwritten laws too?! Why did you take photos and then published in the media that elections were rigged in Kabali village; who allowed you to do it. You are impolite.”
Kikilashvili tried to provoke us but we left the session on time. The commission satisfied only our one complaint and annulled the results of the portable ballot box in the PS # 22.

Former Lagodekhi district governor Gia Gozalishvili also attended the session who was candidate of the National Movement and is going to occupy the position of the chairperson of the municipal board. “Why did you landed your observers exactly in Lagodekhi district?! Could not you go to other districts?! Will not you stop bothering people in Kabali village before they beat you properly?!” he asked. “It is not your business where I will observe the elections. As for the fact that we were not beaten in the village, I cannot thank you for that,” I replied to the former governor.

We had deadline at 8:00 pm on June 3 to appeal against the resolutions of the Lagodekhi DEC. At the Gurjaani district court the trial on the elections finished at 7:00 pm and I went to Lagodekhi together with the lawyer. Before that, I was suggested several times not to appeal to the Lagodekhi district court but I did not listen to them. At 7:35 pm police car stopped us between the villages of Kabali and Baisubani. The policemen demanded our driving license. Policeman Teimuraz Chachanidze said we were driving at a high speed and investigator started to draw up a fine protocol. I asked him to write in a hurry but he prolonged the time; simultaneously he was receiving directives on the phone. He did not even know the article under which the administrative fine was to be imposed on us. The policeman did not let us go before 8:00 pm. Lagodekhi district policeman Giorgi Lekishvili was organizing the operation “intervention – with the fine of 100 GEL “; the policeman is the nephew of the former district governor Gia Gozalishvili. At 8:04 pm we found only bailiff at the Lagodekhi district court.