Burjanadze Claims CCTV Footage from Polling Stations is Public

Nino Burjanadze, the Parliamentary Chairperson, said that footage from CCTV cameras that were installed at part of polling stations on January 5 presidential election, was public.

“You can check it and if someone creates artificial problems [in access to footage] please inform me and I will have an adequate reaction to that,” the Georgian daily 24 Saati (24 Hours) quoted Burjanadze as saying on April 11.

Sozar Subari, the Public Defender, however, said on April 4 that the Central Election Commission had released footage from only twelve polling stations upon his request and refused to release others. He also said that study of footage had revealed that voter turnout at the eight polling stations had been inflated by 5,475 in total. Multiple voting, as well as other procedural violations, had also been observed, Subari said.

The Public Defender has recently also complained that amendments to the election code passed by the Parliament on March 21 had restricted access to the footage recorded by the CCTV cameras at the polling stations. Although election observers and other election stake-holders present at a polling station will have the right to immediately access CCTV polling station footage, they will, however, have to indicate a concrete time for an alleged violation and will only be given access to that particular, 15-minute, portion of footage, according to the amendments.