Georgian Central Election Commission Chair says administration fully prepared for tomorrow’s elections, calls on voters to participate and stakeholders to ensure peaceful process

Giorgi Kalandarishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Central Election Commission, on Friday provided the public with data on the number of polling stations, registered candidates, as well as observers and media outlets ahead of the upcoming local elections scheduled for Saturday.

In his remarks, Kalandarishvili expressed the election administration’s full readiness for tomorrow’s elections and appealed to the parties involved to facilitate the conduct of the election process in a peaceful environment.

“Tomorrow, on October 4, the next elections for the representative body of the municipality, the Sakrebulo, and the mayor of the self-governing city/ community, will be held. Georgian citizens will elect 2,058 members of 64 Sakrebulo, both through proportional and majoritarian systems, and 64 mayors. The election process will be monitored by observers from 28 international and 27 local organisations, as well as by about a thousand representatives of 73 media outlets. The registered international organisations include representatives of embassies of various countries, as well as international organisations and election administrations from 21 countries. Including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovakia, Montenegro, Turkey and Moldova”, Kalandarishvili said.

“It is noteworthy that working meetings will be held throughout the day today with election administrations of various countries and international organisations, within the framework of which I will personally provide participants with information on any election-related issue of interest to them. Additionally, 12 political parties have registered for the October 4 elections. Nine mayoral candidates are registered in Tbilisi. All 12 political unions have submitted party lists for the Tbilisi City Council elections. In addition to Tbilisi, a total of 112 mayoral candidates are registered in the remaining 63 municipalities, including four candidates nominated by initiative groups. As for the majoritarian candidates registered in the local majoritarian election district, a total of 2,228 candidates are registered, including 32 candidates nominated by initiative groups. In Tbilisi, there are 160 candidates”, he continued.

As Kalandarishvili noted, all polling stations were ready to receive voters, the voting process would begin at 8 am and voters were required to have a valid Georgian citizen's ID card or passport.

He also added that voting would end at 8 pm, however, voters standing in line at this time would be able to vote, for which, upon the instruction of the chair of the precinct election commission, one of the commission members would register voters standing in line and so that they would be able to participate in the vote.

“It should be noted that municipal elections are one of the most complex and difficult elections in terms of administration. Accordingly, the election administration has been actively preparing for the conduct of elections at a highly professional level and in accordance with international standards throughout the year. It has carried out a number of large-scale activities in various directions”, the Chair said.

“Based on the work carried out and the results of the mock election, I can confidently say that the administration is fully prepared for tomorrow. For this, I would like to thank all election administrators and all parties involved, from with public agencies and to various entities (political parties, media, non-governmental organisations, etc.) who assisted the election administration in the process of preparing for these very important elections”, he added.

The Election Commission Chair called on District and Precinct Election Commissions to facilitate the crucial process of election observation and coverage, strictly adhering to the rules established by law.

He also called on the observation organisations to comply with the legislation, not to interfere in the functions and activities of the commissions, and thus contribute to the conduct of the election process in a calm and professional environment.

“The election administration will act within the framework of the law and in case of interference or obstruction in the activities, it will immediately resort to the mechanisms established by law”, he stressed.

Kalandarishvili emphasised that elections were a common affair, and that was why he appealed to voters to be active, to come to the poll stations and use their right to choose.

“I also appeal to the parties involved - registered political parties, local non-governmental and international organisations, and the media - to contribute to the conduct of the election process in a peaceful and free environment. Your participation is important to ensure the transparency and integrity of the election process”, he added.

“Detailed information about polling stations, activities and other activities and statistics will be posted on the Central Election Commission website and will also be provided to media representatives for dissemination. The election administration is ready to administer the elections in compliance with the legislation, transparently and at a high professional level. First of all, I would like to note that this is the first municipal elections when the election administration will use electronic technologies on a large scale, which will significantly increase the speed, simplicity and transparency of the procedures”, he continued.

As the Election Commission Chair noted, the total number of voters for the October 4 municipal elections was 3,513,818 and 3,130,348 voters would participate in the elections using electronic technologies.

“It is noteworthy that this year, for the first time, about 47,000 young people will be given the opportunity to participate in the elections. In order to inform them, the Central Election Commission has carried out a number of information activities. 60,754 voters have applied to the election administration with a request for a portable ballot box. The elections will be administered by approximately 34,000 election administrators”, he said.

Kalandarishvili also reviewed the voting process.

“At polling stations where voting is conducted using electronic devices, the voter will be given one ballot paper, which is divided into three columns. Together with the ballot paper, the registrar will give the voter a special, appropriate frame-envelope of the appropriate form. In this case, the voter arriving at the electronic polling station should not circle the number of the desired electoral subject, but should color/mark the inner space of the circle in front of only one electoral subject/candidate of his/her choice in each column with a special marker and place the ballot paper under the slot cover in the vote counting machine using the special frame-envelope. It should also be noted that the slot cover is being used for the first time in this year's elections”, he noted.

“The vote counting machine automatically counts the votes and, after the completion of the voting, immediately after the mandatory procedures are completed, prints an extract of the preliminary results of the vote, which is sent to the Central Election Commission via a tablet. Which, of course, means that the time for publishing the preliminary results is significantly reduced and, presumably, within one to two hours after the end of the voting, which in turn is related to the receipt and consolidation of information, we will present the first preliminary data to the public. It is worth noting that the transmitted data will be available to any interested person on the website”, he continued.

Kalandarishvili underlined that in order to ensure transparency and reliability, a manual counting of ballots was envisaged and during the counting of ballots, commission members sorted valid and invalid ballots and compared the results with the machine data.

“At the remaining polling stations, voting will be conducted according to the current rules, however, ballots at these stations will be scanned and digitised, uploaded to the appropriate secure platform and made available to all interested parties”, he added.

The Chair further emphasized that electronic devices were not connected to the Internet and therefore there was no threat of cyber-interference.

“Of course, voting is secret. Modified (so-called cut-out) booths are located at all polling stations. We would also like to remind you that photography and videography are prohibited in the booths. Additionally, there is no connection between the voter and the ballot, as well as no connection between the verification device and the ballot, which is another prerequisite for ensuring secrecy”, he said.

He also highlighted that based on the experience of the election administration and the vendor company, the probability of any device malfunctioning was minimal, but, of course, such cases were also foreseen and insured, the main thing was that voting would not be interrupted in any case.

“The Central Election Commision contact hub - 2 51 00 51 - will be open during the day. The media center will also be open on a permanent basis, where the media and parties involved in the election processes will have the opportunity to receive information on issues of interest to them”, Kalandarishvili added.

“We call on the parties involved to strictly comply with the legislation and contribute to the peaceful conduct of the elections”, he concluded.