Georgia: Preliminary Statement on Parliamentary Elections
11/05/2003 | Абу
Fair Elections' Preliminary Statement
on Parliamentary Elections of November 2, 2003
November 4, Tbilisi - For the November 2 parliamentary elections in Georgia, the domestic monitoring NGO Fair Elections deployed observers to more than 2 300 polling stations in every region of the country. Fair Elections would like to express its gratitude to all of the observers, including those from the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, for the commitment and courage they demonstrated on election day. In defiance of the harassment they faced at many of the polling stations, our observers carried out their monitoring duties aimed at protecting the votes of the Georgian citizenry. Many of them risked physical injury and even their lives. Our observers were intimidated, threatened with guns, and physically assaulted; at times they had to be escorted outside polling stations by international observers. One of our observers still remains in police custody in Ajara. Fair Elections urges the Ajarian authorities to respect the Georgian Constitution and legislation, and to release the illegally detained observer.
Fair Elections' preliminary assessment of the election day is based on the comprehensive data that we have received from our observers in the field. The results of our observation force us to conclude that the government failed to properly administer the parliamentary elections of November 2. Inaccuracies in the voter lists, which were repeatedly highlighted in the pre-election statements made by Fair Elections', became glaringly evident on election day. The inaccuracies in the lists compiled by the Georgian government, and the resulting chaos surrounding them, led to the unconstitutional disenfranchisement of a significant number of voters.
The election administrations often failed to comply with Georgian law. However, this cannot merely be understood as administrative failure, we must also stress that this sometimes constituted deliberate acts of election fraud. The intimidation of observers cannot be assessed as administrative error, nor can the stuffing of ballot boxes be explained as technical incompetence. The falsification of election results is not just misconduct; it is a crime. Fair Elections believes that what happened during the elections should not be excused as the administration's ineffectiveness, where it was in fact a purposeful obstruction of the voters' will.
Fair Elections observers collected data that is sufficient in amount and quality for us to declare that the officially reported turnout has been inflated and protocols were forged. This was especially evident in Ajara and Kvemo Kartli. Fair Elections will release a detailed report on observed violations and irregularities as soon as the final data received from observers has been sorted and analyzed.
We believe that violations were widespread, though they were not so bad as to merit an invalidation of the elections. The efforts of the observers and the desire of the voters combined to protect the overall integrity of the elections, despite the violations and fraud that was observed. As a result, Fair Elections is able to report that our parallel vote and parallel turnout tabulations provide not only for qualitative judgments, but also statistically precise quantitative judgments on the results of the elections. (With a confidence level of 99%, the margin of error for the first place party is less than 2%, and the margin of error for the bottom two parties listed is much closer to 1%.) Fair Elections' parallel vote tabulation results are listed below:
· "Saakashvili National Movement" 26.26%
· Governmental bloc "For the New Georgia" 18.92%
· "Labor Party" 17.36%
· "Burjanadze-Democrats" 10.15%
· "Democratic Revival Union" 8.13%
· "New Rights" 7.99%
· "Industry will Save Georgia" 5.2%.
We continue to push for results that reflect the will of the voters. Fair Elections will persist in monitoring the Central Election Commission as it conducts its tabulation and appeal review processes, hopefully in an effort to correct the systematic violations and irregularities evident on election day. We are especially concerned with the regions of Ajara and Kvemo Kartli.
Fair Elections urges the Central Election Commission to prove their good will in preventing any further abuses of the election process, which would include their refusing to affirm fraudulent results. Fair Elections has filed over 400 appeals. It is of crucial importance that the Central Election Commission takes action in response to the irregularities and incidents observed during the polling and counting procedures.
In conclusion, Fair Elections suggests that the Central Election Commission must do the following in order to fulfill their responsibilities to the people of Georgia:
· The results should be published precinct by precinct, as promised;
· The complaints filed with the election administrations should be reviewed and crimes relating to the elections should be prosecuted;
· Results from precincts marred by sufficiently overwhelming violations should be annulled;
· The counting and tabulation has to be conducted according to the law, and the transparency of this process should be ensured;
· The final results must reflect the will of Georgian voters as it was expressed on November 2.
on Parliamentary Elections of November 2, 2003
November 4, Tbilisi - For the November 2 parliamentary elections in Georgia, the domestic monitoring NGO Fair Elections deployed observers to more than 2 300 polling stations in every region of the country. Fair Elections would like to express its gratitude to all of the observers, including those from the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, for the commitment and courage they demonstrated on election day. In defiance of the harassment they faced at many of the polling stations, our observers carried out their monitoring duties aimed at protecting the votes of the Georgian citizenry. Many of them risked physical injury and even their lives. Our observers were intimidated, threatened with guns, and physically assaulted; at times they had to be escorted outside polling stations by international observers. One of our observers still remains in police custody in Ajara. Fair Elections urges the Ajarian authorities to respect the Georgian Constitution and legislation, and to release the illegally detained observer.
Fair Elections' preliminary assessment of the election day is based on the comprehensive data that we have received from our observers in the field. The results of our observation force us to conclude that the government failed to properly administer the parliamentary elections of November 2. Inaccuracies in the voter lists, which were repeatedly highlighted in the pre-election statements made by Fair Elections', became glaringly evident on election day. The inaccuracies in the lists compiled by the Georgian government, and the resulting chaos surrounding them, led to the unconstitutional disenfranchisement of a significant number of voters.
The election administrations often failed to comply with Georgian law. However, this cannot merely be understood as administrative failure, we must also stress that this sometimes constituted deliberate acts of election fraud. The intimidation of observers cannot be assessed as administrative error, nor can the stuffing of ballot boxes be explained as technical incompetence. The falsification of election results is not just misconduct; it is a crime. Fair Elections believes that what happened during the elections should not be excused as the administration's ineffectiveness, where it was in fact a purposeful obstruction of the voters' will.
Fair Elections observers collected data that is sufficient in amount and quality for us to declare that the officially reported turnout has been inflated and protocols were forged. This was especially evident in Ajara and Kvemo Kartli. Fair Elections will release a detailed report on observed violations and irregularities as soon as the final data received from observers has been sorted and analyzed.
We believe that violations were widespread, though they were not so bad as to merit an invalidation of the elections. The efforts of the observers and the desire of the voters combined to protect the overall integrity of the elections, despite the violations and fraud that was observed. As a result, Fair Elections is able to report that our parallel vote and parallel turnout tabulations provide not only for qualitative judgments, but also statistically precise quantitative judgments on the results of the elections. (With a confidence level of 99%, the margin of error for the first place party is less than 2%, and the margin of error for the bottom two parties listed is much closer to 1%.) Fair Elections' parallel vote tabulation results are listed below:
· "Saakashvili National Movement" 26.26%
· Governmental bloc "For the New Georgia" 18.92%
· "Labor Party" 17.36%
· "Burjanadze-Democrats" 10.15%
· "Democratic Revival Union" 8.13%
· "New Rights" 7.99%
· "Industry will Save Georgia" 5.2%.
We continue to push for results that reflect the will of the voters. Fair Elections will persist in monitoring the Central Election Commission as it conducts its tabulation and appeal review processes, hopefully in an effort to correct the systematic violations and irregularities evident on election day. We are especially concerned with the regions of Ajara and Kvemo Kartli.
Fair Elections urges the Central Election Commission to prove their good will in preventing any further abuses of the election process, which would include their refusing to affirm fraudulent results. Fair Elections has filed over 400 appeals. It is of crucial importance that the Central Election Commission takes action in response to the irregularities and incidents observed during the polling and counting procedures.
In conclusion, Fair Elections suggests that the Central Election Commission must do the following in order to fulfill their responsibilities to the people of Georgia:
· The results should be published precinct by precinct, as promised;
· The complaints filed with the election administrations should be reviewed and crimes relating to the elections should be prosecuted;
· Results from precincts marred by sufficiently overwhelming violations should be annulled;
· The counting and tabulation has to be conducted according to the law, and the transparency of this process should be ensured;
· The final results must reflect the will of Georgian voters as it was expressed on November 2.