The 30 May local elections “marked evident progress” towards meeting international standards, but “significant shortcomings” remain, OSCE-led International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) said in its preliminary report released on Monday.
Asked whether these elections were free and fair, Ambassador Audrey Glover, head of the observation mission said at a news conference that the OSCE no longer used “free and fair” while describing elections, as such description was not precise and did not help countries in knowing how to improve elections in the future; instead OSCE assesses elections against the commitments of OSCE and Council of Europe and also national legislation, she said.
“That is a better way, we think, of assessing an election,” she said and added that OSCE got away from “this ready, quick ‘free and fair’ approach.”
Among shortcomings the report notes deficiencies in the legal framework, its implementation, an uneven playing field, and isolated cases of election day fraud.
Voting was assessed positively in 96% of polling stations visited by the mission observers, according the report.
Observers, however, assessed “more negatively” the vote count. One in five counts was assessed as “bad or very bad” and “significant procedural errors or omission reported from over one quarter of counts observed,” according to the report.
One in five precinct election commissions had problems completing the results protocols, and over one third of them did not post protocols for public scrutiny as required by law, the report says. Observers also reported that “frequently” persons, who were not member of precinct election commissions, participated in the vote count and in almost one half of observed precincts the members did not fax the vote summary protocols to the Central Election Commission immediately upon completion, according to the report.
The tabulation process was assessed “negatively” in five of the 43 district election commissions observed by the international monitors. Report also says that mission observers were “at times hindered in their observation” and in one case mission’s observer team “had to be withdrawn due to intimidation” – details of this case are not discussed in the report.
According to the report while allegations about intimidation and pressure on opposition candidates to withdraw could not always be substantiated, observers assessed several such allegations as credible.
Observers also received allegations from “numerous sources that businesses were reluctant to make donations to some opposition parties for fear of negative repercussions.”
“This is of concern in light of the evident disparity between the campaign funds available to different parties,” the report reads.
The report says that despite “systemic irregularities” on election day, in overall elections were well administered.
It says that CEC managed the elections in a “professional, transparent and inclusive manner” and considerable efforts were made to improve the quality of voters’ list.
On legal framework, the report says that election code is generally adequate for holding democratic elections. Among the shortcomings of the code, the report lists provisions which allow unlimited campaigning by certain public officials and the use of administrative resources for campaign purposes, which “do not guarantee a level playing field for all contestants.”
The mission was carrying out media monitoring for last six weeks. According to the report the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s First Channel offered viewers “a balanced picture of the campaign in its news.”
“The campaign coverage in news programs of all other monitored television channels lacked balance,” according to the report.
Rustavi 2, Imedi TV, as well as Adjara TV and local Tbilisi station Real TV demonstrated support for the ruling party and its Tbilisi mayoral candidate with Real TV also producing programs “discrediting opposition candidates.” Kavkasia TV and Maestro TV, by contrast, served as a platform for the opposition, in particular the Alliance for Georgia, according to the report.
"These elections were marked by clear improvements and efforts by the authorities to address problems occurring during the process. It is now time to fix the remaining shortcomings and take effective steps to prevent electoral malpractices before the next elections at the national level," Ambassador Glover said.
