Flawed Presidential Election in the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region

What was going on in Adigeni and Akhaltsikhe polling stations from 7:00 AM on January 5? How was the process going? Observers did not realize their role and violations went undetected. The final conclusion: “Wow! The election has succeeded!”

I was woken up by car-signals and shouting “Misha, Misha”. My neighbor’s name is Misha, but as it was January 5, I remembered the election and looked out the window. “It snowed.”

January 5 was white for the population of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region.

“The day started well but I wonder how it will end?” asked a woman in the street.

Although it was cold, the streets were overcrowded. People had realized the importance of their participation in the elections.

Adigeni

There are sixteen polling stations in precinct # 38. The number of voters on the list was 15 093.

“Elections without violations.” We can state this about the elections based on the conclusions of the observers and election commission members.

“There are no violations and everything is going peacefully.” Every commission member has learned this phrase by heart and they were repeating it all day long.

We met observers from New Generation, New Initiative; Fair Elections; and the Unified Public Movement of Multiethnic Georgia at polling stations in Adigeni precinct # 38. However, they also repeated the same text. “We have not observed any violations here,” said some of them. Most of the observes did not want to make any remarks.

“I can state loudly that observers are very illiterate. They do not know their responsibilities. They have not read the Election Code either. They do not react to violations at all,” said Neli Eremadze anxiously.

“Everything is ok,” said Natia Julia, an observer for Fair Elections at Adigeni Polling Station # 1.

“There has been no incident here, everything is going smoothly,” said Eldar Kbilashvili, a representative of New Generation-New Initiative at Varkhani Polling Station # 7. There was a different name written on his accreditation card.

Observers did not pay attention to Ude Polling Station # 12 where many people present represented the National Movement. Levan Abuladze and Nino Tumanishvili, supporters of the presidential candidate from the ruling party did not avoid introducing themselves.

Nevertheless, nobody observed any violations.

At approximately 3:00 PM there was terrible chaos at Varkhani polling station # 7 where 1 547 voters were registered. Nearly forty people were unsuccessfully trying to vote and were looking for the polling box located somewhere in the corner of the hall.

A lady, Marekhi Datiashvili, was trying to control the situation in the polling station and was giving directions to people. She tried to prohibit journalists from taking photos. The woman was Mikheil Saakashvili’s supporter and was the chairperson of the Adigeni Municipality Educational Resource Center.
Some other representatives of the presidential candidate from the ruling party were in the polling station as well, namely Marekhi Datiashvili’s, Davit Oganezian; Petre Merabishvili, the chairperson of the National Movement fraction; and a resident of the village of Ude.

“We have not observed any violations,” said Davit Oganezian.

Unlike the chairperson of the National Movement Fraction, a representative of presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili, Teona Machitadze, made a critical statement: “First of all, it is a violation that the polling station is filled with observers from the ruling party. In addition, voters entered the polling station after having negotiated who to vote for and they already know what number they have to circle in the booth.”

Macharashvili, the chairperson of the Adigeni precinct # 38 explained the situation: “The polling booths have one entrance and exit and it causes long queues in the station,” he said.

According to data collected at noon five hundred people had voted in polling station # 38 of the village of Varkhanii in the Adigeni district. One person needed 30 seconds to vote. Voting went slower in the village of Arali where 270 people had voted by noon. Here a person needed one minute to go through the whole voting process. Voters from the village of Ude needed 70 seconds to vote for their preferable presidential candidate, for their preferred time of parliamentary elections and NATO integration.

Lamara Azirashvili, a representative of presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze at polling station # 12, spoke about the physical assault of a representative of presidential candidate Davit Gamkrelidze.

“They have beaten a representative of Gamkrelidze, his surname was Merabishvili,” she said.

Iza Balakhashvili, the chairwoman of DEC # 12 was surprised about the incident. “Everything is going according to normal procedure,” said she.

The people standing outside the polling station categorically denied the incident.

“What are you speaking about? Somebody had an argument in the street and that was it,” said Avto Merabishvili, a resident of the village of Ude. However, he definitely knew who was beaten. “That man is from this village and had the same surname as Merabishvili. He pretends to be severely beaten and now they are looking for a car to take him to the hospital,” he added.

Voter Eter Balakhishvili admitted that people are afraid. “We are voting under fear,” she said, but did not say who they were exactly afraid of.

Akhaltsikhe

There were 34 polling stations in the Akhaltsikhe district. The total number of voters was 34 378. Considering migration from the district, Oleg Sandroshvili, the head of Levan Gachechiladze’s supporting team, does not believe this figure complies with reality. “In comparison to last year’s data, the number was increased by 1 500 names. There is large unemployment here. How they have registered so many people here I cannot understand. A lot of people have migrated abroad and to the capital.”

“Presidential elections were conducted with unprecedented falsification,” said Oleg Sandroshvili and mentioned many examples.

“At Polling Station # 3, our representative observed a voter pushing several ballot papers into the polling box. The same happened at polling station # 4.

Official complaints of our observers were not registered with the DEC’s.

The electricity supply was cut off at polling station # 3 while counting the votes. The result of the delay was 200 more ballot papers on the table.

Members from our organization could not leave polling station # 23 in the Fersi district. They were demanded to give up those 100 votes their candidate had gained after counting. Finally we filed complaints.

“We have observed “merry-go-round” voting at several places. One person voted at several polling stations. Similar cases were observed at polling stations # 4 and # 15. A mini-bus was moving around the town and was driving a group of people. They visited almost every polling station, voted there and then moved to other stations.

As a result of such “merry-go-round” voting, Saakashvili has received several hundreds of votes.”

An observer of Levan Gachechiladze’s team spoke about violations in the village of Klde.

“The chairman and members of the election commission pressured the observers. They made remarks: Do not stand here! Do not do that! Stop there!... I noticed that they had put ballot papers under the polling box. I immediately demanded them to raise the box. Suddenly they discussed the issue and a little girl said it was her fault. Thus they did not let me file a complaint. The whole commission was ready to beat me. I could not resist them and changed my mind about filing a complaint,” said Maka Gelashvili.

A member of the PEC of Akhaltsikhe polling station # 29 was pushing envelopes into the box. She took ballot papers from voters and then put them into the envelope. Nobody made remarks about the violation.

There were many police officers present at Akhaltsikhe Polling Station # 8, however observers kept silent there too.

Gulo Kokhodze, Akhaltsikhe-Adigeni