ISFED Presents the first Interim Report of its Pre-Election Monitoring
On April 24, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) released its first interim report of the monitoring of June 15, 2014 local self-government elections of Georgia. ISFED is carrying out the monitoring in all election districts of Georgia by means of 73 long-term observers (LTOs), who have undergone previous adequate preparation and
training for the monitoring.
The monitoring was launched on March 31, 2014 elections; however, the monitoring report also covers the events that occurred before the official announcement of the date of elections, which may have had a negative or a positive influence on the election environment. The report contains 4 acts of interference with pre-election campaigning, one act of political pressure and six cases of questionings and arrests that occurred before April 20. “We explicitly condemn these acts since we believe that such incidents significantly hinder free and fair pre-election environment”, - said Nino Lomjaria, the Executive Director of ISFED.
In the process of elaboration of the draft self-government code in 2013-2014 and reforming of the election code, fundamental legislative amendments were expected; however, final outcomes of the reform fall short of the initial ambitious plans of the government. The process of election reform in 2014 failed to address an important issue of changing the election system. Despite a number of recommendations made, multi-mandate majoritarian districts have not been set up.
Absence of a comprehensive list of voters remains to be a serious challenge for the upcoming 2014 self-government elections. Notably, biometric and highly credible voter list has not been prepared for the local self-government elections.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for Free and Fair Elections (IATF) commenced its work late, in violation of the timeframe prescribed by law, and its first meeting did nothing more than reiterating recommendations issued during previous elections.
ISFED’s recommendations and violations identified during pre-election period are available in the first interim report published on the following website: www.isfed.ge. Reports of pre-election violations are also available on the joint elections web-portal of non-governmental organizations at www.electionsportal.ge.
This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of ISFED and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Election activities including this report are kindly supported by the Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia.