Electoral disputes with respect to the results of the October 26 elections have been completed. In total, across the country, the My Vote Coalition requested the annulment of the election results of 245 electoral precincts, covering more than 415 thousand registered voters. All requests were rejected by the final and binding decisions of the Kutaisi and Tbilisi Appeals Courts.
The 29 District Election Commissions, along with the District and Appellate Courts, dismissed the coalition's complaints without adequate justification or proper and objective examination of the submitted evidence. During the appellate review stage, the Kutaisi and Tbilisi Appellate Courts violated international standards for electoral dispute resolution by consolidating complaints submitted by observer organizations regarding the annulment of results from hundreds of polling stations into a single proceeding. This undermined the principles of effective electoral dispute resolution and the right to a fair trial based on the principle of equality between parties.
On the 5th and the 6th of November the Kutaisi Appeals Court declined our complaints concerning the annulment of the election results in 66 precincts in West Georgia. On November 7, after almost 22 hours of non-stop hearing, the Tbilisi Appeals Court declined our complaints, by which we contested 16 decisions of first instance courts of East Georgia, and requested annulment of the election results in around 163 precincts. At the same time, the appeals court repealed the decision of Judge Vladimer Khuchua of the Tetritskharo District Court, whereby he had repealed the election results of the two polling stations of the Tsalka electoral districts.In addition, as the Tbilisi Appeals Court has informed us, the court considered, while sitting in camera, our appeal against the decision of the Gori District Court, whereby we have demanded the annulment of election results in the 14 precincts of the Gori electoral district.
Our appeals were based on the violation of secrecy of voting, harassment of observers, the commissioners’ denial to register the observers’ complaints, handing out multiple ballot papers to the same voters, multiple voting, violations of inking procedures, voting instead of another person by using the latter’s ID card or personal ID number, presence of unauthorized persons at polling stations, etc.In both appeals courts, the appeals were considered by the panels which included the judges having close ties with Georgian Dream or the “Judicial Clan” that controls the whole judicial system in Georgia or the “Clan” members. In the Kutaisi Appeals Court, Zaza Ramishvili, Khatuna Khomeriki, Leri Tedoradze, and Shota Siradze, a former Khobi municipal assembly member from Georgian Dream and the father of Vazha Siradze, the Director of the Patrol Police of the Ministry of the Interior; in the Tbilisi Appeals Court, David Akhalbedasvili, Gocha Didava, and Dimitri Gvritishvili, who is believed to be one of the leaders of the “Judicial Clan”.
On election day, "My Vote" monitors observed 1131 polling precincts continuously and hundreds of polling precincts through mobile groups. Out of those 1131 precincts: the observer was hindered from observing - at 160 polling precincts; Inking was not checked - at 191 polling precincts; Inking was not applied - at 153 polling precincts; Secrecy of voting was violated - in 365 precincts; Physical confrontation/violence/pressure was recorded - in 85 precincts; Unauthorized persons were present at the precinct or near the precinct - 259 polling precincts. In addition, we have identified 196 precincts (i.e. 17% of the precincts under our observation), where the violations took place in a repeated, continuous, and in some cases systemic manner.
The above irregularities were contested in the District Election Commissions and later in courts. As shown above, all electoral disputes were completed by the rejection of our claims.
