Local Watchdogs’ Pre-Election Report
The authorities are trying to hold the May 30 local elections in a way that will "gain a positive assessment from the international community," three Tbilisi-based election watchdog groups said in a joint statement released a day before the elections.
"Several important steps have been taken in this direction although, along with the positive trend, the problem remains that, when interpreting legal prohibitions, the
emphasis is being placed on the formal side rather than the aim and the essence," the statement reads, adding that it makes distinction between the state and the ruling party blurred, creating unequal conditions for other parties.
Three watchdog groups Transparency International Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections (ISFED) and Democracy and the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) have teamed up to coordinate monitoring activities and set up Election Media Centre.
The groups said in the joint statement that Central Election Commission’s (CEC) efforts to improve the voter list "should mostly be assessed positively."
Local observers, however, are critical about the performance of lower level election administration – District Election Commissions and Precinct Election Commissions, saying that it was difficult to obtain information from those bodies.
"It is also regrettable that the electoral administration ignored the recommendation of the observer organizations and, as a result, the individuals who had been ‘blacklisted’ by ISFED and GYLA for the mistakes made and the violations committed during the past elections were once again appointed as precinct electoral commission members," the statement reads.
The report notes "fewer violations" related with use of administrative resources and intimidation of voters and candidates, than it was recorded during the 2008 parliamentary and presidential elections.
"Though one should also take into account the fact that there was less competition this year. Political parties focused on Tbilisi, while the instances of intimidation were much more frequent in the regions than in Tbilisi during the previous elections," the report says.
Watchdog groups criticized CEC for showing "little interest in reviewing the complaints concerning the election campaign."
"This stemmed, partially, from the fact that the commission deemed the preparation for the elections to be more important. Ultimately, the Central Electoral Commission chose to assume a passive rather than a proactive stance in terms of reacting to violations," the statement reads.
The observer groups said that the government’s Inter-Agency Task Force for Free and Fair Elections was "more actively towards responding to violations."
However, the statement also says that there was only one case when a person involved in election wrongdoing was punished. An acting director of a public school in Khulo, Adjara Autonomous Republic, was dismissed for holding a pre-election event at school.According to the inter-agency group several other incidents are presently under investigation, including the May 3 incident in Mestia.
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