Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori
Tbilisi Appeal Court decided on the arguments about the results of the polling station in Variani village, Gori district in favor of the election administration. More precisely, they did not change the judgment of the judge of the Gori district court and former district prosecutor Nikoloz Marsagishvili. The court was discussing the suit of the observer of the Human Rights Center. In fact, within the limited 4 days, the court demanded the observer to preserve all procedures which are necessary for huge cases prolonged for many years. Instead, they did not envisage the violations which were observed during the counting of votes at the PS.
Chairperson of the Gori election district # 32 Giorgi Khorbaladze had to protect the results of the polling station # 40 in the village of Variani initially in Gori district court and then at the Tbilisi Appeal Court. In both cases, the trial ended in favor of the election administration.
Six complaints were filed to the Gori District Election Commission (DEC). Three of them were filed by the organization “Fair Elections”, two were filed by the Gori office of the Human Rights Center and one by the Labor Party. The DEC completely satisfied one complaint of the Human Rights Center and partly satisfied one complaint of the Fair Elections. Other opposition parties did not file any complaints to the DEC.
Chairwoman of the Gori office of the Fair Elections Tea Tedliashvili stated that they demanded to annul the election results at the polling station in Kelktseuli village.
“Our observer was under a serious oppression in the polling station. He was going to file a complaint but the commission chairman threatened him with throwing him out of the window. Having received this information, I went to the PS and there I saw complete chaos. The chairperson and other male commission members were drunk and spoke with us in a very foal language. The situation got so tense that they even intended to physically assault us,” said Tea Tedliashvili.
Commission members of the Kelktseuli village polling station called the chairman of the Gori DEC to help them. The representative of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Tinatin Khachidze arrived there; she personally witnessed the disorder in the PS. All election procedures failed. Despite that, during the discussion of the Kelktseuli’s case Tinatin Khachidze stated village that all violations were eradicated when she arrived at the precinct.
“Thus, I cannot see any ground to annul the elections results at the PS in Kelktseuli village because after the election administration arrived there all problems were resolved,” said the chairperson of the DEC and did not satisfy the request of Fair Elections. Instead, the DEC suspended the authority of the PS chairperson earlier.
Gori office of the Human Rights Center filed two complaints to the DEC. One was about the violations in the PS in Pkhvenisi village for what the commission chairperson and his deputies were “fined”. More precisely, part of their salaries was cut. The complaint did not envisage other requests and in fact, it was completely satisfied. Another complaint was about the abolishment of the results at the PS in Variani village.
Representatives of the Gori office of the Human Rights Center state that blatant violations were observed during the counting of the votes in Variani precinct. More precisely, every commission member was counting the ballot papers. Simultaneously, the sealed documents were opened several times. More precisely, false signatures were added to the empty boxes in the voters’ lists. The DEC Chairman Giorgi Khorbaladze and Tinatin Khachidze rushed into the PS at 3:00 am; Khachidze is a specialist of the legal committee of the parliament of Georgia. Khachidze tried to interfere in the activities of the observer from the Human Rights Center and categorically demanded him to delete the video-recording he had made during the day. Besides that, the commission members at the Variani PS requested the observer not to pay attention to some violations, etc. The organization later introduced the video-recording at the court though in vain. The judge said during the trial that although there were violations they could not influence the election results.
The Human Rights Center evaluates the decision of the Gori district court negatively. Lawyer of the organization Nino Jincharadze thinks that the district court focused only on one violation which was mentioned in the complaint.
“We do not agree with the court in part of the abovementioned violations. The district court acted in accordance to Article 125 Part I of the Election Code of Georgia: “DEC can annul the election results at a precinct where this law was blatantly breached.” Based on the law definition, it is clear that the DEC can annul the results if the Code is blatantly breached.
Consequently, the conclusion of the court that the violations (confirmed and acknowledged by the witnesses and the court too) could not impact the election results was groundless. Of course, it was absurd to have similar discussion when the number of registered voters at a precinct is less than 1 500. We cannot even predict that a violation observed in a precinct can influence the final results of the election when the total number of voters throughout the country is 3 million. The judgment speaks about the influence on the election results which are not mentioned in the law at all. Court cannot increase the requirements of the law deliberately. In accordance to the law, in order to annul the results at the precinct one condition was enough – blatant violation of the law. Nevertheless, the Court alleged that additional conditions were needed to make decision and it breaches the law,” said Nino Jincharadze.
The Appeal Court did not change the judgment of the Gori district court.
As for the complaint of the Labor Party, Gori DEC made fun of it and did not satisfy it at all.
International Election Observation Mission wrote in their report that “on the election day, like previous elections, systemic violations were observed particularly in Kakheti, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Shida Kartli regions. The report also states that election administration carried out the elections professionally, transparently and with the participation of all sides.
International Observation Mission paid attention to the system regarding the way the complaints were discussed.
“The decrees of the Election Code, which deal with the election disputes, shall be more clarified. It was evident that both suitors and commission members were not aware of the procedures related to election complaints and applications. Lack of knowledge of procedures and competence granted huge discretionary authority to the election commissions in the discussion of the complaints; and it turned into an inconsistent practice,” the OSCE report.
The OSCE Monitoring Mission assesses the courting procedure most negatively. “The process of vote counting was assessed more negatively. Averagely, in one out of five cases it was evaluated as bad or very bad. More than 25 % of the counting process was carried out together with significant procedural violations and mistakes. In many election commissions of the precincts the main procedures of vote counting were not complied at all. For example, signatures of voters in the voters’ lists or unused ballot papers were not counted and the results were not written in the final protocols. Observers of the international observation mission often stated that the people, who counted the votes, were not commission members. They even observed three facts when the data, results or protocols were fabricated in the voters’ lists. Averagely, in one out of 5 polling stations the problems regarding the filling in of the protocols were observed. The observers of the International Observation Mission observed 7 cases when the final protocols were signed in advance. In the one-third of the precinct commissions the protocols were not used. Although it is demanded by the law, almost 50 % of the precinct election commissions were sent to the CEC soon after the votes were counted.”
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