Final Election Results Delayed
The Central Election Commission(CEC) made a controversial decision to delay the publication of the final election results until April 18. CEC ruled to hold repeat elections in the two Adjarian districts,Khulo and Kobuleti, on that date.
According to the election code, the final results should have been released on April 15. However, on April 2 the CEC annulled the election results in Khulo and Kobuleti election districts, quoting massive irregularities. Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze’s party – the Revival Union – received most of the votes in these districts.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), which observed the March 28 elections, claims the CEC has overstepped its mandate. GYLA lawyers claim that according to the Election Code, only the courts can cancel election results from districs.
GYLA appealed the court to overrule the CEC decision.
“Whatever the reasons behind the CEC decision, the court should…annul it. This decision was politically motivated and is illegal,” Tina Khidasheli of GYLA said.
A member of the outgoing Parliament, Vakhtang Khmaladze, who was actively engaged in the drafting of the election code, supports Khidasheli’s view.
“According to the Election Code, repeat elections are held only if the proportion of annulled ballots exceeds 10% of the total number of voters. The number of voters in Kobuleti and Khulo does not exceed even 3%,” Vakhtang Khmaladze told Civil Georgia.
The CEC are going ahead with the planned re-vote despite the court appeals. Special groups composed of members from the CEC are to be deployed to hold the elections in the two disputed districts, since the CEC had previously disbanded the district election commissions there.
Elsewere, election results were annulled by district election commissions in 50 other precincts. most of these precincts were located in the Kvemo Kartli region, where local and international observers reported numerous irregularities.
On April 6 the elections were held in Georgia’s remote Kodori gorge, which is the only part of breakaway Abkhazia hat is still under the Georgian central authorities’ control. Polling stations failed to be opened in Kodori on March 28, as bad weather prevented the delivery of ballot papers. The prospective 1500 votes from Kodori would not affect the final results .
With 1,518,000 votes counted out of approximately 1,532,521 votes cast, the ruling National Movement-Democrats party garnered 67,02% and the moderate Rightist Opposition coalition – a coalition of the New Rights and the Industrialists – 7,62% of the votes. None of the other parties cleared the 7% threshold necessary to secure seats in the Parliament.
The Labor Party accused the authorities of mass ballot-fraud and appealed the court to annul the election results and recount votes in 12 of the 75 election districts. However, the district court in Tbilisi rejected the Labor Party’s appeal.
