Nona Qurdovanidze is the head of the Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia. She wrote on social media that 2,000,000 citizens have learned that there is no court. This fight will continue.
Qurdovanidze points out that the court blamed voters for not respecting their right to vote secretly.
“The review of GYLA’s cases due to mass violation of the secrecy has been completed. GYLA filed a lawsuit on October 29 against all constituencies (73) for mass violations of vote secrecy. They also demanded that the results of all districts be annulled. There are 2263 district. Our case was heard by all the city/district court in Georgia. There are 24 of these courts, plus both appeal courts.
Final decisions are issued by the courts of appeal. The courts have ruled that what 2,000,000 citizens believe happened did not. The marks of the marker were on the opposite side of the votes (whatever was left), but if the voter was sufficiently dexterous he could have covered up the marks on the otherside of the ballot.
This case has implications that go beyond the decision.
Everyone knows that the election administration did not ensure that the voting secrecy right was protected. We can be sure that future elections won’t use such a ballot or voting procedure.
This case exposed the flaws of the legal system. 2,000,000 citizens discovered that there was no court. The court accused the voter of not respecting the right to secrecy in voting. It was the voter’s mistake. A court like this cannot be trusted by the public.
This case also showed that the system cannot be sure that citizens, like the judge from the Tetritskaro District Court, will not appear to challenge it with bold decision.
We ask ourselves:
Was this strategy justified in the dispute?
What did the voters get out of it
Did they return the voting right to the voter
What will be the legal outcome of this case?
We can say with certainty that we protected the rights of 90% of voters whose right to secrecy of voting was violated. We believe that we were obliged to resolve the dispute. This fight will certainly have a sequel.
I would also like to publicly thank the Saya Team. Qurdovanidze wrote that “all GYLA employees have been involved in this case, in different ways”.
The Tbilisi Court of Appeal has not complied with the decisions of the courts of first instance, which implied that there was a violation of the secrecy of the vote in the parliamentary elections of October 26. The court ruled that the Tetritskaro Court’s decision, which implied a violation in the secrecy surrounding the vote, was void. The Court of Appeal dismissed the lawsuits of non-governmental organization Young Lawyers Association and the observation mission My Voice regarding the violation of vote confidentiality.
The Court of Appeal heard the lawsuits of “My Voice” and the Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia on the issue mentioned for almost 24hours.
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