Documents

The document presents final joint assessment by International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Transparency International Georgia of the main changes made by the Parliament of Georgia to the Election Code. In addition, the document discusses recommendations that should be taken into account after the 2021 local self-government elections.

In its final interim report, Promo-LEX reports on the main issues from the end of the election campaign and final election preparations ahead of Sunday's early parliamentary elections. Main issues include legal uncertainties related to the funding of elections, lack of a CEC decision that would regulate the organized transportation of voters, unreported expenses for the election campaign, and perpetuation of hate speech and incitement to discrimination.

Observers criticize the CEC’s decision on setting up too few polling stations abroad and for not following the legal criteria provided for this in the Electoral Code. They also note an increase in misuse of state resources and that most parties failed to declare some of their campaign expenses, amounting to a total of approx. 90 000 Euro in undeclared expenses, of which most went to campaign advertising. Complaints filed to the CEC were also not addressed in a swift manner and there is a high rate of rejected complaints.

In this second interim report, Promo-LEX reports on the registration of election contestants, early campaigning, setting up of polling stations according to voters' pre-registration numbers, and concerns over the lack of provisions for ensuring COVID19 preparedness. Observers find that this campaign is again affected by several instances of hate speech.

ISFED concludes in its final monitoring report that the Election Day was managed effectively and in compliance with the legal requirements. Despite the extreme surge of Covid-19 cases, voters were provided with a safe environment to cast their votes. However, the prevalence of cases of vote-buying / bribery / intimidation, misuse of state resources, domination of the ruling party in the election commissions, discrepancies in the summary protocols, and ineffective handling of complaints and appeals, significantly undermined public trust in electoral processes.

Concerning last year’s presidential election in Moldova, Promo-LEX Association concludes that election contenders avoided reporting all campaign expenditures, there was a record number of hate speech, use of administrative resources, bribing of voters, and a high rate of complaints not accepted by the CEC and courts. In some instances, observers were restricted from accessing voter lists and there were isolated cases of observer intimidation by law enforcement and electoral officials on election day.

Moldova's presidential election runoff had a high voter engagement. During voting day, certain polling stations abroad ran out of ballots and thus did not allow voters to cast their vote. Organized transportation of voters from Transnistria and intimidation of election observers was also again present during the second round of the election. Promo-LEX’s parallel vote count largely correlated with the official results announced by the CEC and the vote count was conducted in a quick and calm manner.