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Zemo Lambalo – Repeated Municipal Elections with Zonder Brigades

June 15, 2010
Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

On June 12, repeated municipal elections were held in the polling station # 47 in the village of Zemo Lambalo in Sagarejo district. According to the directives of the Central Election Commission (CEC) the Sagarejo District Election Commission (DEC) annulled the election results based on the video-recording of the Human Rights Center. On May 30, the observers of the Center video-recorded a person who tried to drop ballot papers in the ballot box; after that chairperson of the precinct commission tore off the ballot papers.

On June 12, the polling station was arranged in the two rooms of the house of Akhliman Masimov in the center of Zemo Lambalo village. The registration tables were in one room and the booths and ballot box were in the second one. The PS was opened at 8:00 am. Before that, the precinct election commission (PEC), which had new members, elected the registrars, supervisor of the ballot box and people in charge of the people’s flow based on the ballot. The members of the “National Movement,” “By Us” and “Entrepreneurs” participated in the ballot. The members of the Conservative Party, Christian-Democrat Movement, Labor Party and Republic Party did not arrive at the precinct. The members and chairwoman of the Sagaarejo DEC Maka Barikhashvili and her deputy were at the PS from the early morning. Later, the CEC representative Konstantine Kirvalidze also joined them and remained there before the final protocols were drawn up. There were three observers at the polling station – I represented the Human Rights Center and two others from the governmental institutions: Sagarejo district former governor, head of the election HQ of the National Movement and first number of the election list of the ruling party Gia Chalatashvili; he represented the non-governmental organization “Academy for Peace and Development”; head of the election bureau of the single mandate candidate of Sagarejo district Buzariashvili – he represented the Society “Batumeli.”

Commissary of the Zemo Lambalo territorial unit Alahiara observed the elections at the entrance and surrounding area of the precinct all day long. The village governor used to meet each voter before entering the polling station and say something in Azerbaijan language. Before meeting the Alahiara the voters had to meet the former chairperson of the polling station # 47 in Zemo Lambalo village. He was sitting in the car at the gate of the house; he was holding lists in the hand and marked who had come to the PS. When I asked him to show the lists, he closed the papers, got out of the car and left the area.

Turnout of voters was very low. By 12:00 pm, only 75 voters came from the registered 1 363 voters. They were elderly people; among them a man of 115 who could not move without help. When I asked the commission members why they did not have portable box, Maka Barikhashvili said: nobody had applied to the commission with the request and nobody was registered in the annex. Later I found out that before the repeated elections the voters had not received invitation letters based on which people could apply to the election commission and request the portable box.

Commission members announced a break at 1:00 pm since the voters did not come to the precinct. Village governor Alahiara served the commission members with “Khashlama” (boiled meat), hot bread, cucumber and tomato, cheese and cold drinks in the building of the precinct.

At 2:00 pm voter arrived at the polling station and asked the commission members to abolish the fine protocol drawn up by patrol policemen on him.

“They have fined me with 400 GEL. They blamed I had more cargo on the truck than allowed. You have already won elections and now you started to fine people,” complained the voter. The residents of Zemo Lambalo village complained because some of them were not registered in the voters’ list. “On May 30 I was on the list but now I am not,” said Rizvan Usupov. If a voter complained about something, several Azerbaijan men standing at the entrance used to drag the person out of the yard under force. One of those “guards” told us we would have to leave the photo-camera in the precinct. “Who are you? Why are you threatening us? Why are you here from the morning?” I asked him. Commission member from the National Movement Jabadari assisted the Azerbaijan man. “The law prohibits the presence if ineligible people only in the building of the precinct.”

At 5:00 pm, 104 voters had come to the polling station. Many of them did not know how to vote. They could not speak Georgian and voters assisted each other. People could vote even without entering the booth.

At 8:00 pm the precinct was closed. 117 voters took part in the elections on that day. 98 of them voted for the candidate of the National Movement; 9 votes were for the candidate of the Alliance for Georgia; 1 vote for the candidate of the National Council and 1 vote for the candidate of Tortladze- Democrat Party. 8 ballot papers were abolished.

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