The FINANCIAL — According to Civil Georgia, Central Election Commission “remained indolent” to look into alleged violations during and after the election day, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) said on January 13.
GYLA, which fielded 400 election observers in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi and Khelvachauri, has filed 230 complaints to election administrations and only one has been met so far (in Kutaisi District Election Commission). “Having unlawfully interpreted the provisions of the election code the CEC rejected all complaints submitted before it by GYLA, thereby saying definite `NO` to remedy the alleged violation of election process,” the watchdog group said in a statement.
It also pointed out that at the time of approving final vote tally of the January 5 election by CEC, court hearing into a complaint by GYAL was not yet over, which was a violation of the law. “It is forbidden for the CEC to summarize the election results before the completion of the disputes in common courts related to the elections,” the election code reads.
“By saying definite `NO` to deal with the merits of election complaints during last week and unlawful summarization of results, election administration and judicial authorities have failed to remedy the alleged violations and infringed the principle of Rule of Law, which constitutes the cornerstone and pre-condition for declaring the elections in whole as fair and democratic,” GYLA said in the statement.
The group also said that it has found discrepancies between vote summary protocols of some precincts (in Batumi and Khelvachauri) and those that have been released later by the District Election Commission and CEC.
Unlike its post-election assessment, GYLA has been generally positive in its comments on polling day itself. Despite some procedural violations on election day, it said on January 7, in general the polls were held without any mass violations.
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