It Is Impossible to Ignore Video-Proofs of the Human Rights Center

 Video-recordings about rigged elections and violations presented by the Human Rights Center at the special press-conference attracted the attention of the international organizations and diplomatic corps. After the video-proofs about shameful violations were spread, the Central Election Commission (CEC) ordered the Sagarejo district election commission to discuss those video-recordings. District Election Commission (DEC) decided to annul election results at two polling stations. However, on the previous day, the DEC refused the Human Rights Center to satisfy their complaints and to accept the video-proofs.

Two days later, the Human Rights Center presented the video-recording of the violations in Kakheti region during the municipal elections on May 30 at the Media Center of the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. The Human Rights Center monitored the elections in the villages of ethnic Azeri population in Kakheti region.

Before video-recordings were presented, the executive director of the Human Rights Center Ucha Nanuashvili made a summary of the violations. “Two and more people were entering booths; most voters did not know Georgian language and since the ballot papers were in Georgian, other people – among them commission members – dictated the people in Azeri language which number to mark; there were mini-buses and cars outside the polling stations which brought voters in groups. In most cases, the drivers of these cars had certificate of observers or commission member released by the CEC.”

Ucha Nanuashvili said - what happened in this region were not elections. “It was everything but elections.” It took hours to the observers of the Human Rights Center to file complaints because the commission chairpersons categorically refused to accept their complaints.

“Observers were under serious oppression. They were threatened. My relatives live in Kakheti region and they directly threatened me to create problems for my relatives unless I stopped protesting; they told me the names of my relatives. The observers were also threatened. Since the situation got very complicated, at 7:15 pm we decided to withdraw all our observers from the polling stations in Sagarejo district. There was no guarantee of security because two years ago our observer was beaten in this region and my video-camera was broken,” said Ucha Nanuashvili.

Editor of the video-portal of the Human Rights Center Giorgi Janelidze also spoke about violations. He said the people were allowed to vote without IDs. Commission members claimed they knew the person and could register them without IDs. Janelidze also recalled how underage children voted in Kakheti region.

The video-recordings demonstrate how the chairperson of the polling station # 47 in Sagarejo election district # 11 tore off ballot papers when the executive director of the Human Rights Center Ucha Nanuashvili discovered that one voter had marked 6 ballot papers. You can see the video-recording of the fact on the following link: hridc.tv/index.php?a=view&id=413&lang=geo

Video-recordings also show how the voters are dictated to mark number 5 for the ruling party at the polling stations.

The chairwoman of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Tamar Khidasheli agreed with the statement of Ucha Nanuashvili after seeing the video-recordings. “It does not have anything in common with the elections. I am sorry that the government of Georgia manipulates with ethnic minorities living in the country,” said Khidasheli and added that CEC should have serious reaction on these violations.

Kind Will of Sagarejo District Election Commission

Next day, on May 31, Sagarejo district election commission did not satisfy complaints of the Human Rights Center’s observers and refused to accept the video-recordings as proofs.

On June 2, Sagarejo district election commission was compelled by “higher instances” to make controversial decision. Based on the video-recordings of the Human Rights Center, the Sagarejo DEC annulled the election results at the Mughanlo and Zemo Lambalo polling stations.

Chairwoman of the Sagarejo DEC Maka Barikhashvili reported to the Kakheti News Center that they received the video-recordings of the violations at the abovementioned polling stations from the CEC.

“The DEC discussed the facts provided by the video-recording. Underage child voted at the Mughanlo polling station; commission chairperson tore the ballot papers at Zemo Lambalo PS; consequently, we annulled the results,” said Barikhashvili.

It is noteworthy that Ucha Nanuashvili held a press-conference at the media center on the previous day and presented the video-recordings to the journalists. The blatant violations were so clear that CEC could not stay blind on them. The CEC ordered the DEC to discuss the video-recordings after media-sources spread them.

According to Ucha Nanuashvili, serious violations were observed at the other polling stations of Kakheti region. You can see the video-proofs on the video-portal of the Human Rights Center www.hridc.tv: http://hridc.tv/index.php?a=files&catid=22&lang=geo&page=1