Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia and Fair Elections (ISFED) publish joint evaluations and recommendations in regard to amendments elaborated on the bases of a memorandum signed between political parties “Georgian Dream” and “Citizens” and meant to be made to the Election Code. “Besides, for election legislation and practice refinement purposes, there have been expressed opinions about solution of those problems, which had negative impact on an equal and free election environment during the entire election cycle. Attention is also paid to issues that are not addressed in the proposed draft legislative amendments, but are crucial in terms of improvement of an electoral environment and increase of credibility of election results in the country”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. There will be conducted a webinar on: Gender dimensions of disinformation in the field of elections, politics and digital information, organized by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Time: February 24, 2021, at 17:00 Tbilisi time. Please register at the link: Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy responds to questions posed by representatives of the election administration and parties. This response involved the elections in regard to the results of PVT of the October 31, 2020 parliamentary elections including those related to imbalances revealed at 8% of precincts. After the change in the governing body of ISFED, it was decided by the staff and board members of the organization to thoroughly re-examine shortcomings, identified in summary protocols, in order to provide comprehensive answers to questions raised by society. In this regard, in the first half of January, representatives of the head and regional offices of the organization reviewed summary protocols and attached documents of all polling stations selected for parallel vote tabulation (850 stations), including those of 25 special and so-called COVID polling stations, as well as three polling stations opened in penitentiary institutions”, - is stated in information released by the organization, - “within the framework of the revision, ISFED identified those summary protocols, in which sum of numbers of votes received by election subjects and void bulletins was more, equal or less than the total number of voters who participated in the elections. Within the revision process, there were also analyzed attached documents (correction protocols, explanations, and resolutions), besides, ISFED compared verified copies of summary protocols handed over to observers at the closing of the polling station and summary protocols uploaded on the website of the Central Election Commission”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. TI Georgia has studied the issues of parliamentary election campaign finances from September 1 to November 17, 2020. In addition, it analyzed the donations received by political parties in more depth and reviewed the trends highlighted in this regard since January 1, 2020.  By the organization, out of nine election subjects that received at least 1% of the votes, one subject (Girchi) did not submit the completed financial statements to the SAO. Therefore, the findings of the report are mainly based on the analysis of the financial declarations submitted by 8 election subjects.  Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. According to Transparency International Georgia, changes, to be made to legislation on elections and political parties, do not meet democratic standards. “We consider that the major part of proposed changes to the rule of funding of parties is contrary to European standards of state funding of parties and, on illegitimate grounds, will heavily affect financial situation of opposition parties, which fact is going to have negative impact on political pluralism and a competitive political environment. At the same time, cancellation of election registration for an election subject due to participation of an unauthorized person in the election campaign is a disproportionately severe sanction and carries a great risk of using it for political purposes”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia's (TI Georgia) observation of the parliamentary elections from July 1, November 22, 2020 showed that the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes is still problematic for Georgia. Ineffective investigation of violence, the politicization of public institutions, including election commissions, and mobilization of the employees of budgetary organizations by the ruling party for election campaigns, the use of investigative agencies to discredit political opponents, and other vicious tendencies remain unchanged from election to election. Read more…  Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. USAID commends ISFED for taking the initiative to thoroughly review its parallel vote tabulation (PVT) data and transparently share the findings of its internal audit. “As a professional and reputable civil society organization with a responsibility to provide transparent information, ISFED undertakes its own data quality assurance processes to ensure the integrity of the findings as a standard practice. This is in accordance with international best practice when variance exists in PVT data. We support the efforts of all organizations and institutions involved in election monitoring to be as thorough and transparent as possible. We appreciate that ISFED has done so in this complex post-election environment”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Kelly Degnan, the US Ambassador to Georgia, expresses her appreciation to Transparency International Georgia for its contributions to the electoral process. “Your commitment to meeting international standards will help build an electoral process Georgian voters can have confidence in. You have my sincere thanks for pursuing this challenging and vitally important work with such dedication and professionalism”, - writes the Ambassador. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Human Rights Center are closely following the developments after the October 31, 2020 Parliamentary Elections in Georgia, in which the population of Georgia elected its supreme legislative body through universal and direct vote for the tenth time since gaining independence. The October 31 Parliamentary Elections had a particular historic significance – through constitutional amendments in 2020, the electoral system was substantially changed, increasing proportionate parliamentary representation. This was a major democratic development and an achievement of all parts of society. “On Election Day there was a mass mobilization of supporters and so-called “coordinators” of the ruling party around the polling stations. The actions of some of these groups were hindering free expression of the will of voters. It should be noted that Human Rights Center did not detect many violations during the voting process. However, there were significant inaccuracies revealed in the final protocols which summed up the results of the voting from Precinct Election Commissions throughout the whole country, including imbalances between the number of voters who came to the Elections and the number of the ballots cast”. Read more… Source: humanrights.ge

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) is going to observe the second round of the 2020 parliamentary elections, which takes place on November 21. 35 mobile groups of ISFED will be monitoring the elections in 17 majoritarian constituencies. The observation mission of the organization is going to be limited on the second round. “The boycott of the parliament by opposition parties and refusal to participate in the second round of the elections significantly make no sense to observe the election process at polling stations. Besides, taking into account problems occurred in the healthcare system on the background of the growing number of people affected with the COVID infection, presence of observers at polling stations throughout the day poses unwarranted risks to their health”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. During the October 31, 2020 Parliamentary Elections in Georgia, the Local Observation Organization - Center for Development and Democracy (CDD), in partnership with the International Observation Organization - Institute for Democracy, Media and Cultural Exchange (IDEM), observed the elections with a 100-member joint observation mission covering Georgia’s every region as well as the polling stations set up abroad. “According to our joint mission, the October 31st parliamentary elections in Georgia were held in a competitive environment and with the protection of fundamental freedoms in general. The voting process took place in a relatively calm and organized environment, against the background of unit procedural violations. However, a number of shortcomings - violations were revealed during the vote counting and result summarizing process. Considering the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, high voter turnout is noteworthy, which once more reaffirmed the Georgian voters’ support towards the changed electoral system, one of the main goals of which was to form a more proportionate, representative and diverse legislature”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) disputed against 38 precincts in court in regard to the issue of legality of summary protocols of Precinct Election Commissions and data recounting. According to the organization, out of all appeals on contested precincts, the court satisfied only 12. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Europe Foundation supports the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. The Foundation calls upon the authorities to refrain from restricting these rights and to prevent further escalation of the situation. The organization joins public demand to conduct negotiations between the ruling party and other political subjects, participating in the elections, thus seeking a constructive way to defuse current political situation and ensure further stable, democratic development of the country. Read more… Source: www.epfound.ge

Tbilisi. The Open Society Georgia Foundation responds to the October 31, 2020 parliamentary elections and subsequent developments. “We remind public that constitutional changes, made this year, and introduction of an almost proportional electoral system have entailed a real perspective to turn the legislative body into more pluralistic one and to take active steps to form a coalition government. However, we agree with appraisals of international and local partner organizations and consider that both the pre-election period and the Election Day, as well as the vote counting process went along with numerous violations. There were critically concerning tendencies like removal of the line between the ruling political party and the state, use of administrative resources, attempts to intimidate and bribe voters as well as to control their free will, which may challenge results of the elections and the issue of legitimacy of the legislative body elected as a result of these elections. With this in mind, on November 8, 2020, citizens of Georgia expressed their peaceful protest in front of buildings of initially the Parliament of Georgia, and later - the Central Election Commission of Georgia. During the rally, law enforcers applied special means for dispersal of meetings-demonstrations violating procedures stipulated by law, which fact contributed to escalation of tensions and resulted in harming participants of the rally”. Read more… Source:osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia calls on both the ruling party and the opposition parties participating in the elections to immediately launch negotiations in order to find a way out of the political crisis caused by the election violations. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. ISFED expresses its extreme concern in regard to use of disproportionate forces by the state against participants of a protest rally that took place in front of the Central Election Commission on November 8. “It is noteworthy that the action was in an initial phase when water cannon was used. As long as the action did not go beyond the form and legal scope of peaceful expression, there was no ground for the use of force. Nevertheless, completely disproportionate coercive methods were used to disperse the rally while protesters were not preliminarily warned by law enforcement agencies. We call on law enforcement agencies to not use force against protesters and make sure the right to assembly and demonstration is exercised without hindrance”, is noted in the statement.  Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. “Rights Georgia” condemns all acts of violence and calls on the Government as well as all political forces to: take care of and protect life and health of every individual, public order, right to freedom of assembly and expression and respective scopes guaranteed by local legislation and international law; avoid violence against journalists and interference with their professional activities. “Rights Georgia” expresses its readiness to protect legitimate interests of all people who have happened to get affected by unlawful actions. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations (TI Georgia, Isfed, Gyla) release the statement and call on political parties to resolve crisis through dialogue. “Although the 31 October 2020 parliamentary elections were a clear setback for Georgia and the worst elections held under the Georgian Dream government, we believe that there is still a chance to find a way out of the political impasse through dialogue. We call on both the ruling party and the opposition parties to start talks, inter alia through the international community’s mediation, in order to resolve the crisis which the country faces”, is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia has applied to precinct and district commissions submitting a total of 108 complaints on violations related to the October 31 parliamentary elections. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has filed its final complaint in regard to 109 polling stations across the country, demanding annulment of summary protocols and recount of data. For litigation in court, the organization has prioritized those districts, where it filed more complaints in total. Besides, GYLA is not intending to pursue disputes related to those districts, where mainly majoritarian summary protocols were contested and, taking into account current differences between the first and the second, as well as the second and the third place candidates in accordance with preliminary data, annulment of contested protocols cannot affect results of the majoritarian elections. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) considers that actions, taken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in regard to incidents revealed across the country during the October 31 parliamentary elections, were ineffective. According to the organization, the law enforcement agency, in some cases due to its delayed response to facts of violence revealed on the Election Day, while in the other cases – absence of a will to prevent breach of law, failed to ensure proper maintenance of law, which fact intensified a sense of impunity for violence and elections-related breaches of law. At the same time, the lack of political dialogue during post-election days is problematic, which has a negative impact on the perspective of democratic development of the country. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. During the ad hoc visit of the Special Preventive Group of the Public Defender's Office to the polling station opened at Ksani Establishment No 15 on October 31, 2020, the aim of which was to check both the general situation and the free realization of prisoners’ right to vote, several convicts obstructed the fulfillment of duties by representatives of the Public Defender and verbally abused them. Representatives of the prison administration, including the director of the establishment, witnessed the incident, but did not respond properly. After the summary protocols of the polling station protocols were published, non-governmental organizations filed a complaint against the majoritarian protocol of the polling station opened at Ksani Establishment No 15, as 641 prisoners participated in the majoritarian elections, but allegedly not all of them were constituents of the Mtskheta election district. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge