Statements

The CEC's explanations for significant discrepancies in voters' gender data are insufficient

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) once again highlights unnatural characteristics in the election administration's voter turnout data for the October 26 parliamentary election. ISFED believes that despite holding two briefings, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has not addressed the primary questions posed in ISFED's November 7 statement regarding the number of voters who participated in the election. The Election Administration is obliged to provide the public with further information on the errors and irregular indicators in its produced and published statistics and to give a detailed explanation of the reasons behind them.

In its November 8 statement, the CEC explained that the male voter turnout exceeded the number of registered male voters at 11 polling stations because of inaccurate data from Precinct Election Commissions. However, the Election Administration has not provided the corrected voter turnout data by gender for these polling stations. Consequently, it remains unclear how the quantities of male and female voters who participated in the election are distributed at these polling stations.

The Election Administration's statement that changes in voter turnout data for male and female voters affected only 150 voters across 11 polling stations is incorrect information. This is confirmed by unexplained changes in voter turnout data published on the CEC's website on October 26. For example, in 57 out of 73 electoral districts, there was a decrease in the number of male voters. In 2 electoral districts, there was a reduction in the number of female voters, which can only be explained by errors or data manipulation. 

Overall, after the election day, the CEC's data recorded a decrease of 88,975 male voters and an increase of 91,911 female voters. It is noteworthy that discrepancies were also found in the total number of voters participating in the election in 10 electoral districts. For example, in Electoral District #22 (Marneuli), according to the CEC's October 26 data, 41,766 voters turned out, while the most recent data shows 43,858 voters. The Election Administration has not explained what caused such illogical changes to the information it published and provided to the public if only 11 precinct election commissions made mistakes. The Election Administration has not commented at all on the suspicious characteristics of voter turnout at polling stations where the difference between male and female voter turnout levels is abnormally high. If the CEC rules out the possibility of errors in collecting data from these polling stations, deviations in voter turnout from a normal distribution may indicate manipulation during the voting process.

ISFED once again explains to the public that, according to the latest data from the CEC, the difference between male and female voter turnout levels exceeds 20 percentage points at 275 polling stations. Among them, at 243 polling stations where male voter turnout is abnormally high, the average share of male and female voters in the overall voter list is 50-50 percent. However, at these same stations, the average voter turnout is 48% for females and 77% for males. At 32 polling stations, where female voter activity is abnormally high, the unified list consists of 51% male and 49% female voters. However, the average voter turnout at these stations is 48% for males and 80% for females.

ISFED has still not received the requested information from the CEC regarding the gender composition of special voter lists at polling stations. However, regardless of how the number of male and female voters participating in the election from the special list is distributed, based on the CEC's data, the abnormal nature of voter turnout remains unchanged in a substantial number of polling stations.

ISFED calls on the CEC to provide comprehensive answers to the questions raised, present the receipts and reports on voter turnout received from polling stations, and provide the public with verified accurate information on the gender composition of voters who participated in the October 26 election, broken down by polling station, which is essential for explaining the unnatural indicators revealed through statistical analysis.