PACE Monitors Note Low Level Public Trust to Electoral Process

Low level of public trust in the electoral process “is a point of concern,” monitors from Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said after concluding two-day pre-election visit to Georgia.

“The political tension in Georgia is certainly less than it used to be several month ago,” Matyas Eorsi, head of the delegation, said on April 25. “Still, however, there is a huge lack of trust and confidence among the political players, what we find very dangerous.” This, he said, results into decreased public trust towards the electoral process.

PACE monitors noted that they were “seriously concerned about the low level of political trust in administration of the elections.”

“The delegation calls upon the authorities, and especially the CEC [Central Election Commission], to ensure a fully transparent administration of these elections that can muster a high public confidence, and to refrain from any action that could undermine this,” the delegation said.

Speaking at a news conference in Tbilisi, Eorsi also said the delegation was “heartened” by the Georgian authorities willingness to undertake some of the PACE recommendations, including: the abolition of the additional voters’ lists and voter registration on polling day; lowering of the election threshold from 7% to 5%; the simplification and clarification of election related complaints and appeals procedures. He also hailed that opposition parties were able to nominate their representatives in the mid-level election administration – District Election Commission (CEC). Like in CEC and precinct commissions, in the DECs six out of total thirteen members are nominated by the opposition parties.

Eorsi said that there was much more at stake in the May 21 parliamentary elections, than simply who gets power in the legislative body.

“I would like to remind all Georgians that Bucharest summit of NATO made it possible [NATO] foreign ministers to provide MAP [Membership Action Plan] for Georgia after the parliamentary elections provided it would be better than the [January 5] presidential elections,” he said. “So when we speak about the parliamentary elections, NATO and MAP is also at stake and I am speaking about this because in my conviction those who put the legitimacy of this election in to question without any substantiated argument in my opinion they put the future and the security of Georgia at risk.”