The “Georgian Young Lawyers Association‘s” statement states that the voting day for the October 26, 2024 parliamentary elections took place against a background of significant violations.
According to the organization, “Georgian Dream”, in the majority precincts that were registered by GYLA installed video cameras. These cameras looked at the registrars’ desks, verification machines, or in some cases, the voting booths, and the main ballot box.
The GYLA Monitoring Mission identifies the main violations by taking into account the content, intensity, and interrelationship of the violations.
Vulnerability in the basic voting procedures. Insecurity violations were revealed. They manifested themselves in different ways – the voter wasn’t marked or was asked to fill up the marking liquid. In some cases, the special flashlight failed to detect the markings and allowed the voter into the precincts without proper inspection. There were also cases where voters voted despite seeing traces of marking. Double verification and voting by a single citizen were also revealed.
Obstruction of the activities of the observer – Throughout each day, the observers encountered various obstacles which prevented them from ensuring an open and transparent process. Saya recorded threats against the observer, disruption of the process of monitoring by election commissions verbal insults and verbal assaults, as well as being expelled from the precinct. The aggressive attitude towards the observers became apparent when they noticed the violation of the marking rules.
In the majority precincts that were registered by SAIA video cameras had been installed by “Georgian Dream”. These cameras, in some cases, viewed the registrars’ desks and the verification machines. In other cases, they viewed the voting booths and main ballot box. The quality of the ballots was not high enough to ensure that they did not leave a colored mark on the back. The coincidence of these conditions confirms that there is a high risk of influencing the vote of the voters. Several episodes of violation of secrecy were also recorded, including voting in the presence an unauthorised companion.
During the day, tensions outside the precinct were exposed, as was the registration of voters, the obstruction of journalist’s activities, the irregular performance of commission members’ functions, the illegal agitation of protesters, and other flaws relating to the use electronic technologies. After the close of the precincts, violations related the invalidation of ballots, sealing of the records book, and familiarization with documentation of the Precinct’s were observed.
The Central Election Commission needs to clarify the main violations that were revealed on the day and the doubts about the reliability of processes. In the case of loading the complete list of voters into the verification machines – what mechanisms can they use to ensure that duplicate lists are not activated in different polling stations? This issue is especially important when there are serious violations in the labeling process.
The GYLA’s observation mission continues to carry out its activities, including the study of the summary protocols prepared by the precinct electoral commissions.
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