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Voters “publicly” expressed will

November 2, 2016
 
Manon Bokuchava

Although the principle of privacy in voting is guaranteed by the Georgian legislation, during the second tour of the Parliamentary Elections, there were cases when voters placed their election cards in the ballot envelopes; some voters wrote initials on the ballot papers. Also, some voters expressed their choice differently, in particular, they used squares to mark desirable candidate.
 
Ana Natsvlishvili, the head of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Organization, said before the second round that according to their information, public servants were obliged to circle the ruling party’s candidates with squares. 
The observation of the October 30 has shown: “the precincts where GYLA observers were deployed (up to 300 precincts), up to 80 different cases were observed where ballot papers were marked by squares or triangles, also in up to 40 cases the principle of privacy of voting was violated (cards with the names were dropped in more than 30 envelopes in the precinct #72 in Zugdidi and in 8 envelopes in Zugdidi precinct #65.67.80; two ballot papers were signed by voters in Gladni polling station #20.10.23). It may raise doubts about administrative misuse and control over voters’ will. 

3 cases were observed where voters supported UNM with different signs (in the precincts #92,97 and 108 in Samgori District), all other cases were in favor of the Georgian Dream in Zugdidi precinct #72 (one ballot paper)” –  GYLA’s  report on the second round of the Election Day reads. 

Ekaterine Pavlenishvili, the head of the Rustavi office of GYLA said they were deployed in 22 polling stations in Kvemo Kartli. In 8 cases an opinion was expressed in a different way. 

“The observers did not take photos of the ballot papers, because they did not get a position of supervisors on counting officers. According to the Election Code, only supervisors of the counting officers can take photos”, - Pavlenishvili explained. 

Pavlenishvili sent photos taken by the GYLA observers in Tbilisi to humanrights.ge, where the candidates of the ruling party were marked by squares (upon the request of the organization the number of the precincts are deleted). 

ISFED also reported about publicly expressed choice: 
“During the counting process, significant violations took place in the precinct #72 of the majority district #66 (Zugdidi). In particular, cards with names were placed in 35 envelopes together with the ballot papers. It enabled to identify the voters. A voter also wrote a remark on the ballot paper and confirmed his/her choice in favor of the concrete candidate. The voters voted for the Georgian Dream”, - ISFED’s report reads. 

Certain observers, besides the concrete observing organizations, also disseminated information about different methods used during voting. The ballot papers were posted in Facebook and the level of democracy of the elections was discussed. 

Photos: GYLA; Citizens – Tamta Gogoladze and Salome Makatsaria. 

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