Public Defender Demands Punishment of the Chairmen of the Precinct Election Commissions

Georgian public defender Sozar Subari, demands a reaction on the offenses committed at Kardenakhi polling station # 33 of Gurjaani precinct # 12. He thinks that the Gurjaani Precinct Election Commission (PEC) counted the votes of the Snap Presidential Elections on January 5 2008 wrongly and this constitutes a crime.

The Public Defender sent materials to the Georgian General Prosecutor for a further response. The Ombudsmen recommended Levan Tarkhnishvili, chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC), to discuss the disciplinary and administrative accountability for the people who prevented legal representatives of various organizations from observing the election process at polling station # 33 in the village of Kardenakhi. Observers could not easily monitor the situation and file complaints to the commissions.

“An incident occurred during the meeting of the PEC. More precisely, policemen expelled Davit Nikolaishvili, a representative of presidential candidate Arkadi Patarkatsishvili, upon the request of the commission chairperson. Nikoleishvili later explained that commission members got irritated when he spoke about important violations during the counting of votes. He claimed that signatures were flawed and extra ballot papers were pushed into the polling box. As a result of these violations, Nikoleishvili demanded to declare the results of polling station # 33 to be invalid; however his demand ended in an argument and the suspension of the meeting,” stated officials from the Public Defender’s office.

They also added that the meeting was resumed two hours later and the commission chairperson made a decision to legalize the final protocols from polling station # 33 without thoroughly discussing them. 

Commission members requested the chairperson to finish the discussion, because Article 63, paragraph I of the Georgian Election Code states that “based on the summary protocols of the DEC, the PEC in consideration of the findings of the adjudication of violations of the election law, (…) consolidate the voting results for the elections (…) and approve the summary protocols of the voting and election results held in the election district.” 

“The Commission chairperson provided the commission members with the correction protocols to the protocol together with final protocol of polling station # 33. Zurab Danelishvili, a member of the commission, pointed out that the correction protocol was not attached to the summary protocol delivered from the polling stations and requested to find out the origin of the protocol. Natalia Begashvili, the commission chairperson, did not allow Danelishvili to continue arguing his case and I protested it; consequently I was expelled from the meeting,” said Davit Nikolashvili.

Shorena Kumsiashvili, Khatuna Mirianashvili and Tamar Mindiashvili, commission members of polling station # 33, also confirm that they had signed only three copies of the final protocol - one for the presidential elections and two for the plebiscite. They state that no amendments were introduced to the protocols during the counting of the votes and consequently they did not draw up a correction protocol.

Representative of the Public Defender, Maia Mosidze, stated that the correction protocol was not registered in the Record Book of polling station # 33; though the document has registration number 24. “The validity of the protocol is doubtful because the final records in the Record Book were added on December 26, 2007 and the correction protocol made on January 6, 2008 could not be registered by that number,” said Mosidze.

Natalia Begashvili, the chairperson of the Gurjaani PEC, denies all the accusations. She said that policemen expelled Nikolaishvili from the meeting upon her request, because he was preventing commission members from discussing the protocols. “As for pushing extra ballot papers in the ballot box and committing election fraud, it is false,” said Begashvili.

The Public Defender’s Office is of the opinion they have observed various violations in the activities of the Gurjaani PEC. “The right to vote in secret was breached, votes were not counted correctly. These acts constitute breaches of the criminal code and carry a punishment of two years imprisonment,” said Sozar Subari in his interview with journalists.

The spokesperson of the Prosecutor General of Georgia stated that a criminal investigation has been launched based on the Public Defender’s appeal.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti