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| Thousands searched their names in vain on the voter lists on November 2. |
With the snap presidential elections less than a month away, Georgia’s provisional government and election authorities face number of challenges that need urgent solution in order to secure free and fair elections. The issue of voter lists is still on top of the agenda for the country’s new leadership and Central Election Commission (CEC).
The Central Election Commission adopted on December 7 a controversial rule on making new voter lists, which considers advance voter registration.
Mess in the voter lists during the November 2 parliamentary elections triggered protest of thousands of Georgian voters, who were deprived of the right to cast a ballot, as they were not included on the lists.
Newly appointed Chairman of the Central Election Commission Zurab Chiaberashvili, who previously led the main election observer watchdog Fair Elections, proposed to fully rely on the citizens in developing of the new voter lists.
According to the rule adopted by the CEC on December 7 the voters will go to the precincts and fill out the special forms from December 15 to December 21, which will enable them to cast a ballot on January 4 presidential elections.
From December 21 to December 27 the precincts will make corrections to the voter lists. From December 27 to December 31 the Central Election Commission will make further corrections in cooperation with the Interior and Justice Ministries, as well as with other relevant state agencies.
Zurab Chiaberashvili says that the proposal “is far from ideal” but it is the only way to develop voter lists at the moment.
“As a result of consultations with relevant state agencies, it is clear that there is no perfect voter data that the Central Election Commission can use as a base to prepare the voter lists. Within such tight timeframes it is impossible to conduct all the technical activities necessary for perfecting the voter data held by state agencies,” Zurab Chiaberashvili says.
The proposal also considers including of those voters on the lists on the election day, who will fail to undergo advance registration.
“It is understood, that for various reasons, not all citizens of Georgia will be able to complete election registration. Therefore, there will be a special procedure on the election day, which will ensure that the Constitutional rights of any voter will not be violated and that voters who go to the election precinct will have the right to vote,” Chiaberashvili explains.
The acting Parliament failed on December 5 to reach the quorum, thus the lawmakers could not hold voting regarding the proposal. As a result the CEC unilaterally decided to adopt the proposal.
The proposal was met with skepticism by the one part of members of the acting Parliament. Opponents believe that only small number of voters will go to the precincts and fill out the voter registration forms.
“Creating voter data is up to the Central Election Commission and other state agencies and we can not force voters to go to the precincts,” member of the acting Parliament Valeri Gelbakhiani said at the Parliamentary session on December 5.
MP Vakhtang Khmaladze also expressed concern regarding the CEC chief’s proposal and said that advance voter registration will lead to decrease of number of registered voters, as he supposed that only small number of voters will go to the precincts for registration. “Thus the President of Georgia might be elected only by some 250-300 thousand voters,” he added.
The opponents also criticized proposal to include the voters on the lists on the elections day. They say it would lead to multiple vote, or as it is known to ‘merry-go-round,’ when one person casts ballot for several times in different polling station.
“As the Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Georgia, I hope that citizens of Georgia, the Interim President of Georgia, Parliament of Georgia, relevant agencies and political players will consider the difficulties with regard to the production of a unified list of voters and will respond to my proposal to use above-listed mechanisms for production of voter lists for the presidential elections,” Zurab Chiaberashvili said in a statement issued on December 4.
Inaccuracies in the voter lists, like it was during the November 2 parliamentary elections, which were condemned as fraudulent, would be a blow to Georgia’s new leadership, which has already pledged to hold free and fair elections.
