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. On May 7 and June 12, 2020, the Deputy Public Defender and members of the Special Preventive Group paid special visits to the Center for Mental Health and Prevention of Addiction Ltd. The purpose of the visits was to study the measures taken by the institution to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and their impact on the patients’ rights. “The facility took certain measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. However, even after the approval of the state standard for the management of the clinical condition in psychiatric institutions under the conditions of COVID 19, the institution did not fully implement a number of recommendations provided by the standard”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: ombudsman.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 Network of Centers for Civic Engagement, within the framework of the “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project and with the support of the CSI, has prepared a Monitoring of state grants issued in 2018. “The present study appraises effectiveness of a state grant funding process, its stages and general principles. On the one hand, the focus is on certain rules of legislation, as to what form, stages and criteria are used by public institutions to administer grant competitions through budgetary funds, while on the other hand, there is carried out a survey of practical experiences of bidder and grant recipient organizations, thus allowing to use jointly obtained information in order to elaborate recommendations about how the mentioned process can be improved”. The “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project is implemented by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in collaboration with the Civil Society Institute (CSI), the Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), the Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union (EU), while the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) is the co-financer.  Read more… Source: csogeorgia.org

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. Civil society organizations of Georgia evaluate the 2020 parliamentary elections. “On October 31, the parliamentary elections in Georgia were carried out with a renewed electoral system. Citizens of Georgia had the opportunity to elect a legislative body by a model close to the proportional system, which fact should be assumed as an important step forward. Despite this change, we consider that the Government of Georgia has failed to ensure conduct of the elections in accordance with democratic standards. Moreover, according to our appraisal, the 2020 parliamentary elections were the least democratic and free among those carried out within the period of governance of the “Georgian Dream””. The organizations demand to recount results of those polling stations, in protocols of which there have been detected imbalance, as well as to review submitted complaints lawfully and impartially. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia intends to challenge a proportional summary protocol of the polling station N08.10.99 of the Gldani district, as there is an imbalance of 63 votes between the number of incoming voters and votes received by parties as well as invalid ballots. “Our attention was drawn to the obvious difference between two signatures of the same member of the election commission put on a summary protocol of voting results of the polling station N08.10.99 and a correction protocol of the same polling station uploaded on the CEC website. We consider that the investigative body should get interested in the issue of different signatures of the same person on two documents and, in the circumstances of an objective investigation, determine whether or not these signatures are falsified”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has filed 304 complaints on the polling day and in the post-election period. “The GYLA demands the invalidation of summary protocols and recounting of votes in 177 precincts. In the majority of appealed protocols, we have observed cases of imbalance and/or modification of data. The district election commissions are supposed consider to the filed complaints within two days”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. European Union releases the statement by the spokesperson on the parliamentary elections.  "According to the joint statement of preliminary findings and conclusions of the international observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE, Council of Europe and NATO, the elections were competitive and, overall, fundamental freedoms were respected. The observers noted, however, that the conduct of the elections was impacted by pervasive allegations of pressure on voters and blurring of the line between the ruling party and the state throughout the campaign and on election day, reducing public confidence in some aspects of the process". Read more… Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia is trying to examine all possible criticisms concerning the vote tally protocols. At this point, a review of the vote tally protocols supplied by our observers from the electoral precincts has shown that there is the so-called excessive imbalance in approximately 7% of the total number of protocols, i.e. the sum of the votes cast for electoral entities and the invalidated ballots are larger than the number of voter signatures, which should not be the case if all procedures were conducted correctly. The imbalance is significant in one-third of these cases. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) monitored the October 31, 2020 Parliamentary Elections in all electoral districts around Georgia. “According to information obtained through the PVT methodology, ISFED concludes that in the vote tabulation process there was a tendency of mismatches in the summary protocols, when the number of ballot papers cast exceeded the number of signatures in voters lists, which represents a violation. Additionally, at certain polling stations the mismatch was significantly higher than individual cases. Such violations were reported at 8% of polling stations. A tendency of this scale has not been documented in the past years, and hence, this requires particular attention. Although such tendency could have had certain influence on the results of electoral subjects, the PVT analysis shows that its maximum impact on election results would be less than 4.1%. This tendency endangers trust towards the electoral process, and requires immediate reaction from the electoral administration”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was monitoring the October 31, 2020 Parliamentary Elections in all electoral districts around Georgia. “According to information obtained through the PVT methodology, ISFED concludes that the voting process took place mostly in compliance with the rules prescribed by the law in the majority of polling stations across Georgia. However, the secrecy of vote, inking, casting of lots, COVID-19 regulations and other procedural violations remained problematic. Facts pf physical violence and attacks against media representatives at some polling stations and in the vicinity was extremely problematic”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia monitored the 31 October 2020 parliamentary elections with some 600 local observers. “The analysis of the 170 violations that we recorded and the 46 complaints that we filed makes it clear that the 31 October elections were a step back compared with the 2016 parliamentary elections. The election day was marked by physical confrontations outside the polling stations, obstruction of the work of observers and journalists, including physical attacks on journalists and damaging of their property, violation of the secrecy of vote in the polling stations, alleged instances of bribing of the voters, and other significant and relatively insignificant violations”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. In the opinion of the GYLA, the day of the parliamentary elections of 31 October 2020 passed with significant shortcomings at every stage of the polling day. “The tense atmosphere during the day affected both voter behavior and the monitoring of the process itself. Violence and problems related to free expression of voters’ will are among the leading characteristics of yesterday’s elections. Added to this is the disorganization of precinct election commissions (PECs), including in the area of enforcement of the rules issued to contain the pandemic”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) will deploy 600 observers to monitor the parliamentary elections on October 31, 2020. Our static observers will cover 400 precincts throughout Tbilisi. In addition, 100 mobile groups are mobilized to observe the elections. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has been monitoring pre-election processes within the framework of the long-term observation mission and with the assistance of its 9 regional monitors in Tbilisi, Adjara, Guria, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Imereti, Shida and Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, and Kakheti. “The third interim report on the 2020 parliamentary elections covers violations revealed from October 1 to October 26 or malpractice cases. Overall, observers of GYLA revealed: - 1 case of neglect of a demand regarding separation of the state and the ruling party; - 1 case of use of administrative resources; - 2 cases of voter bribery; - 8 cases of pressure and violent acts, both alleged and confirmed; - 2 cases of obstruction of the pre-election campaign”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes an interim report on funding of the 2020 election campaign of the Parliament of Georgia. According to one of the findings, it turned out that “companies, affiliated with donors of the ruling party, won tenders worth about GEL 47 million in 2020 (before October 1), in return these donors contributed GEL 1.3 million in favor of the “Georgian Dream” during the same period. Especially noteworthy in this regard is G&K Teknologi Ltd., which won tenders worth GEL 17.2 million during the year, while Roman Abramishvili, its owner, contributed GEL 60,000 to the “Georgian Dream”. Another major state contractor is L&K Ltd., which won tenders worth GEL 8.1 million in 2020, while its owners contributed GEL 22,000 to the ruling party”. Read more… Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, and the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics publish a joint assessment of the pre-election environment for the 2020 parliamentary elections. “The pre-election environment as well as preparations for the Election Day have been significantly affected by the widespread of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and challenges posed by it. With the elections approaching, the number of those infected with the virus has increased dramatically, thus causing the preliminarily existing structure of the healthcare system for registration of infected and isolated people to become vague, while the attempts of the Central Election Commission, to regulate this issue via adoption of a decree two weeks prior to the elections, to appear insufficient. Besides, there have been revealed problems related to proper update of voters and correct communication with public. Due to these circumstances, the issue of exercising the right to vote of thousands of voters has been questioned”, - is stated in the joint assessment. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an evaluation of a lawmaking activity of the Parliament of the 9th convocation in the field of justice. “The parliament of the 9th convocation completed its work so that fundamental challenges in the field of justice remained mostly unresolved. In particular, the legislative body failed to: eradicate a clan management practice from the judiciary system over the past four years; create a legislative framework, which would ensure political neutrality of both police and prosecution; substantially change criminal justice policies, furthermore, punishment oriented drug policy has been retained. Besides, the security service, furnished with uncontrolled and excess power, remained as a problem”, - is stated in the evaluation of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. IDFI became a Regional Hub for Central Asia and Eastern Europe in the Global Data Barometer (GDB), which is a global index study of data for the public good that builds on the foundation of the Open Data Barometer.  “Regional hubs connect GDB and each other with stakeholders around the world involved in data for public good, data for development, open data, good governance, open government, and transparency and accountability. Over the long-run, GDB aims to establish a strong network across regional hubs, and support organizations to develop as ‘Centers of Excellence’ in the collection, measurement, and use of data for public good”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an evaluation: Drug policy in pre-election visions of parties - 2020. “In general, it should be mentioned that in the pre-election context, the issue of drug policy is in fact ignored and public discussions about it take place rather in exceptional cases. While in pre-election programs and visions this topic is presented in a very fragmentary way”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a report: Brief analysis of the draft state budget of Georgia for 2020 and recommendations.  •On the background of aggravation of the pandemic, the ongoing war in the region and reduced foreign investments, it is more feasible if the government plans the budget for a lower rate of economic growth; •In the part of expenditures of the budget, non-allocation of funds necessary for reduction of harm caused by the “Coronavirus” makes the budget unrealistic. The government must ensure that the budget covers increased medical expenses, as well as costs of quarantine and other relevant measures; •Insufficient funds are allocated for the Universal Health Care Program. The ministry must increase the amount of funds allocated for 2021 significantly, otherwise it will have to limit financing of medical services”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge