The Golos Movement presents the analysis of key changes in the legislation of the Russian presidential elections of 2018, comparing them with 2012. While some of the changes were aimed at democratization of elections, many amendments introduced brought new restrictions on the right to be elected, candidate registration, election monitoring, among others.

There was no real competition in the elections of the heads of regions held in Russia on September 10, 2017. This is the conclusion of the experts of the movement “Golos” in a new report assessing the level of competition in elections after analyzing the final financial reports of the candidates. Opposition political parties refused to substantially fund the election campaigns of their own candidates for heads of regions.

Executive officials still demonstrated an obviously discriminatory approach to the opposition parties during the formation of the District Election Commissions (DECs). The introduction of a requirement to consider the candidates’ professional and personal qualities did not contribute to greater political pluralism. The process of formation of the DECs took place in an atmosphere of greater transparency as compared to the previous local elections of 2014, but in general the new practices and the results of the formation of the DECs did not differ from previous election campaigns.

Based on the ISFED PVT data, in the 99.7% of polling stations the counting process was conducted without major incidents. The polling station #59 in Ozurgeti district was an exception, where, apparently, there was a focused attempt to create disturbances and annul the precinct, which would influence the overall result of Ozurgeti mayoral race. Nevertheless, the integrity of electoral documentation was not threatened and, at the end, the summary protocol properly reflected the will of the voters.

The Georgian local self-government elections took place on October 21, 2017. the last four weeks before Election Day were marked by a significant increase in cases of intimidation and harassment, mostly of opposition and independent candidates and their supporters, but also of public servants and teachers. ISFED notes that the 23 cases of intimidation identified in the interim report constitute the highest number of such violations documented in any reporting period compared to the 2013, 2014, or 2016 elections.

ISFED published a policy brief on the challenges within the judiciary system of Georgia. According to it, the state must relinquish the leverage at its disposal, allow the judiciary to act as a real implementer of its own powers and let it implement its real function to protect democracy and the Constitution. To this end, the state must demonstrate political will and recognise the problems that unfortunately none of the “waves” of the reform managed to tackle.

EPDE publishes the second report, written by its Russian member, the “Golos” Movement, which analyzes in detail electoral problems, practices and challenges of the elections, held on "Single Voting Day", 10 September 2017. According to the report, the very topic of the elections is treated with silence in the media, and the election commissions that organize municipal elections are not overly zealous in informing voters about the election date.

The local self-government elections in Georgia will take place on 21 October 2017. The Georgian EPDE member ISFED has recently published a report assesing the pre-election environment. According to the report, constitutional changes were the major issue of civil society and political discussions ahead of the elections. The process of constitutional reform reached a sort of a stalemate in late June, after the ruling party made an unexpected decision to postpone changes in the electoral system until 2024.

EMDS believes that comprehensive assessment of 26 September 2016 Referendum requires consideration of all stages of the referendum including evaluation of awareness raising among public on proposed amendments, political situation and conditions prior to the referendum, the election legislation, conduct of the Referendum Day and vote tabulation against the legislation of the country and its international commitments. EMDS notes there was no significant improvements in the fields of freedoms of speech, association and assembly.