Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Elections in the Suburb of Kobuleti – With Propaganda of the Ruling Party

June 11, 2010
Maka Malakmadze, Adjara

I observed the municipal elections at the polling station # 29 in Kobuleti election district # 81. I selected the polling station for several reasons – it was located in the building of the village administration; as for the election HQ of the National Movement, it was opened in the house of the former village governor Davit Inaishvili. Besides that, chairman of the Kobuleti municipal board Sulkhan Takidze is registered as a voter at the precinct. The polling station was situated in the suburb of the election district and the observing organizations paid less attention to it.

The Election Day started with remarks and rude attitude towards me. Commission members seemed not to like the visit of the observer of the Human Rights Center at their precinct.

When the polling station was opened, every commission member was at the pace. Besides that, there were strange people in the yard, among them was the commissary of the Leghva Community Irakli Takidze; we could not find out the reason of his being there.

During the ballot between commission members, commission member Davit Inaishvili changed his function paper (it noted that he was 3rd registrar) into the paper of the commission member Ketevan Jincharadze (as a result of the ballot she did not have any functions). The observer of the Human Rights Center protested against this and requested to ballot repeatedly. We got in touch with the chairperson of the District Election Commission (DEC) Manuchar Gamkrelidze with the request but in vain. The observer from the Christian-Democrat Party Gelodi Nizharadze witnessed the incident but he did not confirm it.

The polling station was located on the ground floor of the administration building of Leghva village. Two election posters of the United National Movement (UNM) were posted up on the fence of the building. I noted to the commission chairperson Zurab Seperteladze regarding the violation but he replied that the fence does not belong to the building. Since our note was not heeded, we registered our remark in the record book. Later, after the deputy DEC chairperson Irakli Beridze arrived at the precinct, the posters were torn off.

Commission members and observer of the UNM Elizbar Romanadze tried to speak with every voter who entered the precinct. They justified their action by the fact that they live in one village. “I have not seen him for a long time and I greeted him, is it a problem?”

At dinner, they even drank alcohol to greet each other. Drunken male members of the commission continued working at the precinct. One of them, Malkhaz Jincharadze from the UNM was particularly drunk. The observer of the Human Rights Center requested the commission chairperson to dismiss him from the polling station but the chairperson replied – “He is sober but very tired.”

The Human Rights Center’s observer wrote a complaint. The commission clarifies in the protocol: “Commission members conversed with Malkhaz Jincharadze and he did not turn up drunk.” The protocol was signed by the observers of the opposition parties too: Gocha Khabazi represented the political party Industry Will Save Georgia; Temur Tsilosani represented the Labor Party who even made a note in the protocol: “We had dinner together but he did not drink anything.”

In parallel to the elections, near the polling station, the commissary of the Leghva Community Irakli Takidze, who was on holiday, and interim commissary Anzor Kakaladze carried out propaganda of the ruling party together with other people. I tried to speak with Irakli Takidze regarding the incident but his companions rudely told me: “It is not your business why Takidze is here. It is not your business where we will be and whom we will speak with!”

Before the polling station was closed, the representative of the Kobuleti DEC Lasha Ananidze arrived at the precinct. Final protocols were filled in according to his directives.

Like in every polling station, the ruling party won elections in this precinct too. The National Movement gained 456 proportional and 458 majoritarian votes of total 675 voters. The opposition party National Council came second and gained only 112 votes.

Lasha Ananidze from the DEC attended the counting process. If he were not at the precinct, it would have been impossible to fill in the final protocol because the secretary Mamuka Tsulukidze did not know how to fill it in

News