ISFED to Conduct Parallel Vote Tabulation

Observers say quick count to prevent  manipulation of election results

The election observer NGO International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) will carry out parallel vote tabulation (PVT) on November 2 parliamentary elections for the first time in Georgia.

Zurab Chiaberashvili, the executive director of ISFED, explained at the presentation of the PVT at Election Media Center on October 30 that the observers of ISFED would count the votes cast on November 2 simultaneously with the officials of the precinct election commissions.

“The parallel tabulation aims to provide the population with the precise and timely results of the elections,” Zurab Chiaberashvili said.

ISFED will have the largest election observation mission ever deployed in Georgia. There are up to 3,000 precincts in Georgia and around 3,000 ISFED observers will monitor elections in up to 2,500 precincts. Along with the monitoring of the election process, observers will conduct quick count of votes.

Zurab Chiaberashvili said that ISFED has pinpointed 600 precincts around Georgia from which the organization would receive the first results of the elections and announce the preliminary results of the PVT based on data of these precincts approximately at 4 AM on November 3.

Nino Toronjadze, the ISFED consultant for statistics issues, claims that the margin of error of PVT results would not exceed 1%. “We suppose there will be 0,5-0,7% margin of error, the maximum is 1%,” Nino Toronjadze added.

Zurab Chiaberashvili said that the results of the PVT should not cause protest of any political party, as ISFED held series of meetings with the leaders of all the leading political parties in August to inform them regarding its intention to hold PVT. “Our initiative was accepted by the parties participating in the elections,” he added.

Before the announcement of the results of the PVT the outcomes of the exit polls will be known, which is also intended to be conducted on November 2. However, as Zurab Chiaberashvili says PVT is not an exit poll, because real votes are taken into account during the parallel tabulation.

Observers say that both the exit polls and the PVT are ways to avoid manipulations of election results, especially in the country with the transitional democracies. “Doubts over the ballot fraud would definitely increase, in case the PVT and official results of the election administrations do not coincide,” Zurab Chiaberashvili said.

“PVT often serves a different purpose from obtaining reliable results fast, at times far ahead of the results being announced officially. PVT is more often used to verify the information offered by the electoral administrations,” Zurab Chiaberashvili said.

ISFED will not include in the PVT results of those precincts where observers reveal numerous procedural violations during the ballot cast.