Evaluation of the Election Day and PVT Results
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was monitoring the June 9 runoff of the by-elections in the electoral district of Mtatsminda through 31 short-term observers, a district election commission observer and 2 mobile teams.
ISFED observers were represented at all electoral precincts of Mtatsminda where they were monitoring the elections using the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology. The PVT allows immediate identification of violations, systemic evaluation of the Election Day process and verification of accuracy of official results.
Main Findings
Based on the observation findings, ISFED concludes the voting and counting process was mostly free from major violations. During voting, a tendency of tracking the voters at polling stations, including by various observer organizations. This is the continuation of the negative practice of possible control of voters’ will.
At certain precincts ISFED observers found isolated incidents. ISFED filed a single complaint at a Precinct Electoral Commissions (PEC) and the District Electoral Commission (DEC).
According to the PVT results, at 3.2% of polling stations, during voting process, secrecy of vote was violated. The cases of casting a vote with invalid documentation, violations of inking procedure or verification of ballot papers have not been identified.
According to PVT results, 4% of ballot papers were invalid.
Final PVT Results of the Election Day
Based on the information received from its observers from all polling stations of the electoral district of Mtatsminda, ISFED is confident in the PVT results. Below are the final results.
#41 Vladimer Kakhadze – Georgian Dream - DemocraticGeorgia - 61.8%
#13 Shalva Shavgulidze– European Georgia – Free Democrats - 38.2%
Violations
- Nearby precinct no. 18, a “Georgian Dream” representative physically assaulted representatives of “European Georgia”.
- At electoral precinct no. 10, number of ballots issued by registrars exceeded the number of signatures on the voter list by one.
- At electoral precinct no. 26 there was a confrontation between PEC and “Georgian Movement for Unity and Unification” representatives on the subject of taking a video beyond the space allocated for video recording. As a result, the police was called and the confrontation defused.
- At electoral precinct no. 1certain individuals holding the status of observers were tracking the voters. In addition, there were various individuals outside of polling stations with the list of voters including photos.
The ISFED observation mission is made possible with the support from the Embassy of Switzerland to Georgia. Views expressed in this statement belong solely to ISFED and do not necessarily reflect positions of the Swiss Confederation.