ISFED concludes that Election Day was conducted in a peaceful environment, in line with the legal requirements. However, certain trends negatively affected the electoral environment, including violation of the secrecy of the ballot, tracking of voters by unauthorized persons, voting with improper voter identification documents or without checking for ink. Procedural violations were also recorded, multiple observers’ rights were violated, and the environment outside of some polling stations was problematic.

Over the last few months, representatives of the ruling party in Georgia have been trying to intentionally undermine the reputation and question the professionalism of election observer organizations, including that of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED). This campaign against ISFED has been ongoing since the 2020 parliamentary elections, where there was an error in ISFED’s PVT algorithm, which was transparently rectified and communicated to the public.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections condemned the illegal and irresponsible decision of the CEC made on 5 June to open only 139 polling stations abroad for the early Parliamentary Elections of 11 July 2021. The decision has been amended and the number has been increased to 146, but observers note the minimum number should have been 150. They criticize the CEC for not applying the legal criteria provided for in the Electoral Code for establishing polling stations abroad.

In a joint letter, civil society organizations in Georgia, including ISFED, urge all political parties to reach an agreement in the next round of mediation to overcome the political stalemate. They call for the opposition to take up its mandate, engage in institutionalized politics and participate in both the development and implementation of reforms.

Electoral reform represents one part of the action plan proposed by international partners to resolve the political crisis in Georgia which arose following the October 2020 parliamentary elections. To complement this international effort, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Transparency International Georgia have issued recommendations and a detailed joint assessment of electoral reforms for 2021.

EPDE’s member ISFED in Georgia is facing increased pressure by the ruling party for allegedly falsifying its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) results of last year’s parliamentary elections, where a technical mistake in ISFED’s algorithm occurred. This was rectified and updated results were then published. However, the ruling party continues to instrumentalize this error to put pressure on ISFED.