"Georgian Young Lawyers' Association" records 147 violations during elections

On the voting day, observers from the "Georgian Young Lawyers' Association" (GYLA) recorded 147 violations at the parliamentary elections, and lawsuits were filed on 75 of them. This was told to reporters by Tamar Chugoshvili, the NGO's representative.

Let us remind you that on October 1, Georgia held voting at the parliamentary elections. According to preliminary information, voter turnout was 61 percent.

Tamar Chugoshvili has clarified that since the opening of the electoral precincts till the end of the voting process, 141 violations were recorded, 69 lawsuits were filed; 6 violations were recorded during the vote counting, and lawsuits were filed on all of them.

According to her, despite some violations in the voting procedure, during the day, the voting process was mostly held in a peaceful manner. The exception was the electoral district No. 35 in Khashuri, where riot police unlawfully interfered in the vote counting process.

"We demand that the results in that electoral precinct should be cancelled, and our association has filed a lawsuit to the District Election Commission," Tamar Chugoshvili said.

She has also mentioned the most common violations, recorded during the voting process.

"The common violations included failure of mark procedure, giving a vote instead of other person, and inaccuracies in the electoral lists. Journalists were unlawfully banned to shoot video records of the voting process, and observers were expelled from several electoral precincts. Moreover, we recorded violations in registration of civilians at the special electoral precincts, for example, in prisons, and we recorded other procedural violations act of acceptance and receipt, insufficient number of ballots and envelopes, seal damage, and so on," a spokesman of the GYLA has stated.

It should be noted that the GYLA was monitoring the voting process in Tbilisi and in nine regions of Georgia - in total in 35 constituencies. Observation was also held at the electoral precincts opened outside Georgia: in the USA, UK, France, Germany and Hungary.