Dozens Complaints Filed on the Election Day in Kvemo Kartli

Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli

Local and international observation organizations assessed the Presidential Elections of 2013 as peaceful without large-scaled violations. Despite peaceful pre-election environment and the Election Day, dozens complaints were filed in polling stations in Kvemo Kartli region.

Majority of complaints referred to procedural violations in the precincts on the Election Day. Local observation missions deployed in the region focused on the form of filling in the final protocols.

“Final protocols were filled in through violation of the election law in the following precincts of Tsalka DEC: #39, #38, #32, #29, #27, #24, #22, #17, #16, #04, #05, #11, #15, #20, #33, #27, #31, #42. Number of votes collected by election subjects was not written in final protocols. In accordance to the election law, corresponding boxes in the protocol shall be either crossed or filled in by zeros in order to avoid fabrication of the documents,” an observer from the local observation organization Public Movement Multinational Georgia wrote in the complaint.

The complaint was not satisfied. The DEC wrote in the decision that election code does not impose similar responsibility on commission members when filling in the protocols. Dozens of similar complaints were filed to the DECs but none of them were satisfied.

Besides procedural violations, there are complaints on different problems too. Namely, the complaint filed by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy in the Precinct # 4 in Marneuli DEC reads: “Registrar Elmira Mamedova allowed a citizen to vote with driving license.” The DEC did not satisfy the complaint “due to lack of legal basis.”

Complaint of Koba Darbaidze, representative of the Democratic Movement – United Georgia was not satisfied either: “Marneuli DEC # 22, Precinct # 42 – chairman allowed underage citizens to participate in the elections. Request: to annul election results in Precinct # 42,” Darbaidze wrote. His second complaint about dropping ballot papers in the election box was not satisfied either. “Marneuli DEC # 22, Precinct # 44. Ballot papers were dropped in the box and the chairman did not react on the violations. Request: to annul results from the Precinct # 44,” the complaint reads.

Complaints filed in the Kvemo Kartli region reflect several violations in the precincts: “Marneuli DEC # 22, Precinct # 40: the delivery and acceptance protocol was not found the precinct; the ballot papers are stored on the window-seal; voters are not requested to produce ID cards, registration magazine is not functioning. Commission chairpersons do not react on violations. Request: to annul results from the precinct # 40,” presidential candidate Nino Burjanadze’s representative in the PEC Vepkhia Gurgenishvili wrote in his complaint, which was not satisfied either.

Only small part of the complaints filed to the DECs in Kvemo Kartli region was satisfied. With regard to majority of complaints, DECs clarified that complaints were not satisfied because of “lack of relevant legal basis.”