Second round of the presidential elections in Gori

Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli 

According to the results of 105 polling stations in Gori District Election Commission N32, the candidate of the united opposition Grigol Vashadze gained 38.01% (25 288 votes) of votes and the Georgian Dream backed independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili received 61.99% (41 244) of votes. In the first round, as reported by Gori DEC N32, Grigol Vashadze received 4 000 votes more than Salome Zurabishvili. The figures changed as a result of high activity of the voters in the second round – the turnout of voters reached 61% on November 28, 2018.

The election process was conducted in peaceful environment; however, the voters had to walk through the corridor of coordinators in the polling stations. The coordinators represented the ruling party. Part of them mobilized voters, while another part was making notes in the voters’ lists, which included personal data and photos of voters. According to the evaluations of the opposition members, the privacy of voting was violated by the coordinators, as they knew in advance which candidate the concrete voter supported and made corresponding notes in their lists.

 

“If a supporter of the Georgian Dream was coming to the precinct, coordinators were writing 48 next to the voter’s name in the list; they acted similarly in case of opposition supporters. It was violation of election privacy and influence on voters,” Medea Abashidze, representative of the United Opposition, said.

The representatives of the United Opposition showed the lists of the GD coordinators to the journalists. They said, they got hold of the lists, where concrete sums were written. 

“GD coordinators were mobilized with lists near polling stations; when we arrived they went away and left lists. There were photos, personal data of voters, mobile phone numbers and concrete sum written in one of the boxes on the list; it was the sum which was paid to the voters,” Otar Kvirikashvili said. 

On the Election Day, MP Anri Okhanashvili from the Georgian Dream was in Salome Zurabishvili’s election office in Gori. He said the coordinators did not act against the law, as they are deployed outside the polling stations. As for the lists and notes in them, Okhanashvili said the representatives of the United National Movement were making the notes.

“UNM members provoked them; they seized lists from the agitators as if they found something. It is false and fabrication of facts because they wrote sums in the lists instead of the GD coordinators,” Okhanashvili said.

Representatives of Grigol Vashadze’s election office claimed the GD involved criminals in mobilization of voters, who were standing near polling stations and influence free will of voters.

1948 ballot papers were annulled in Gori DEC # 32, which made up 2.84 % of voters, who participated in the elections. The observation organizations lodged two complaints to the Gori DEC # 32, where they complained about procedural violations by PEC members.