The observation mission "My Vote", which unites 30 non-governmental organizations, is preparing for an unprecedented large-scale observation mission of the parliamentary elections, the purpose of which is to promote fair elections and protect the votes of Georgian voters. Our observers will monitor the elections both in Georgia and in precincts opened abroad.
- The activities of the observation mission so far
As of now, 1820 observers of different ages and professions from all regions of Georgia and from abroad have already registered in the observation mission.
The observation mission has developed a special methodology for election observation, which is based on the legislation of Georgia and international standards, as well as the experience gained in previous elections. Also, the mission has introduced a special application that will help our observers detect and record violations on election day. All observers will undergo special training, where they will receive theoretical and practical knowledge on how to detect irregularities and ensure the prevention of election fraud. For this purpose, 60 trainers have already been trained and will start training observers in the coming days.
The observation mission "My Vote" permanently exchanges information on current issues with other local and international observation missions, including OSCE/ODIR, IRI, NDI, ENEMO, PACE organizations, and accredited diplomatic corps.
We continue the registration of observers and we remind interested citizens that they can register through the website - wevote.ge.
- A campaign launched by the government to disrupt our activities
Observation is an essential component of fair and free elections. Accordingly, the state bodies should be interested and should support the monitoring missions in the implementation of their functions. Unfortunately, instead of support, government representatives spread disinformation about coalition member organizations, they attack all individuals and organizations who merely stated that "Georgia's future is in the European Union". In addition, the anti-corruption bureau under the Prime Minister's umbrella made an illegal decision and forbade the coalition chairman organization - "Transparency International Georgia" and its executive director - Eka Gigauri from using resources for the monitoring mission. We have already challenged the anti-corruption bureau's illegal and unjustified act as a clear example of violation of freedom of expression in court, but this illegal decision continues to hamper monitoring activities.
It is clear that by using state institutions, the government is trying to damage the reputation of monitoring organizations, prohibit access and use of resources, and threaten to confiscate the organization's property and fines – thereby hindering the work of monitoring organizations.
On September 27, the representative of "Georgian Dream" named several organizations of the coalition - "Academy of the Future of Georgia", "Prevention for Progress" and "Civic Idea" as unreliable and politically active organizations. We believe this statement of the ruling party is an indication for the Anti-Corruption Bureau to spread the repressive and illegal practices used against "Transparency International Georgia" to other members of the monitoring coalition. Despite everything, we will do our best to make the observation mission successful.
- Hate campaign against monitoring organizations as part of the pre-election campaign
Moreover, the efforts of political parties to make independent and impartial monitoring organizations part of the political agenda, include referring to and negatively portraying the heads of these organizations in all pre-election political advertisements.
In particular, we believe that the use of the leaders of the monitoring organizations of our coalition in the pre-election advertisement of "Georgian Dream" in a negative and hateful context violates the legislation regulating pre-election advertisement, is unethical, and aims to discredit non-governmental organizations.
Despite numerous complaints from both media outlets and watchdog organizations, both the National Communications Regulatory Commission and the court fined critical media outlets. They also ordered the critical media to distribute unethical advertisements. The CEC also considered that similar pre-election advertisements do not violate the election legislation.
- Restriction of voting rights of citizens living abroad
The "My Vote" coalition points out the lack of transparency in the registration of Georgian citizens in the consular registration abroad in the election list.
On September 26, the CEC created 60 polling stations in 42 countries based on the updated data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 65,508 citizens of Georgia who have the right to vote outside the country.
It is noteworthy that, despite the high public interest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not publish information about the number of adult citizens on consular registration, which must be somewhat higher than the number of voters provided to the CEC. According to the public information issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 20, 2024, as of August 9, 2024, there were 67,347 citizens of Georgia on consular registration.
During this time, on the special website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the statistical indicator of the number of people registered for consular registration through the online system is increasing every day.
Based on high public interest, we call upon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publish the following information:
• How many adult Georgian citizens were on consular registration as of September 26, 2024;
• How many of the adult citizens of Georgia on consular registration could not be included in the list submitted to the CEC and for what reason, according to the corresponding number of excluded citizens according to the reasons;
• Number of citizens on consular registration in each state.
We hope that the authorities will realize that the elections held without observers cannot be legitimate and will stop abusing their powers.
Despite all the above-mentioned facts, our mission continues to work to protect the voice of every citizen of Georgia. We will continue our activities to cover all election precincts both in Georgia and abroad.
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