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| Inaccurate voter lists heat up debates on the eve of crucial elections. |
With parliamentary elections less than a week away the voter lists remain inaccurate. The Central Election Commission (CEC) failed to meet the deadline of October 26 for correcting the errors and extended review process to October 30.
The opinion polls predict high voter turnout on November 2 elections. However, if the corrections are not made urgently, thousands of voters, especially in the capital city of Tbilisi would be deprived of their constitutional right to cast a vote.
There still are names of deceased citizens or double-registered voters on the election lists, while the names of thousands of eligible voters are missing. The checks reveal that many residential blocks are omitted and the residents are wrongly assigned to the precincts.
Chairperson of the CEC Nana Devdariani admitted on October 23 there is a 10-15% margin of error in the list. “If we are able to finish the work with that figure, this would be the best option under the existing circumstances," Nana Devdariani said.
The statement triggered the protest of the opposition, claiming that this error rate would be abused by the pro-governmental election bloc For New Georgia. Yielding to the opposition demands the CEC decided to move the deadline for publishing the finalized lists for the third time.
“Existing inaccuracies in the lists threaten the elections. That is why we insisted on postponing of the deadline of publication of the finalized lists,” Levan Gachechiladze of the New Rights told reporters on October 26.
The lists are incomplete not only in Tbilisi, where over the third of the voters resides. The accuracy of the lists in the Adjara Autonomous Republic is unknown, as the CEC still has not received them. The authorities of Autonomous Republic claim there are about 280,000 voters in Adjara; however no one has an opportunity to double-check the data.
The opposition parties also cast doubts over the number of voters living abroad at the moment. On October 20 it was officially announced that 80,000 voters reside in the foreign countries. However, the opposition parties claim that this figure is inaccurate, as many of the Georgian nationals abroad are not registered with the Georgian consulates.
The mess in the voter lists triggered speculations last week that the elections could be postponed. However President Shevardnadze ruled out rumors as “groundless.”
“Nobody has requested me to postpone the elections. As far as I know, everything will be done due time. The lists will be finally corrected in the nearest days and the elections will be held as scheduled,” Eduard Shevardnadze said at a news briefing on October 20.
Legal experts say postponement of elections would be unconstitutional.
Drafting of the lists started over again two weeks before the elections, as initial lists submitted by the Ministry of Interior turned to be grossly flawed. The parties which compiled their own lists are actively engaged in re-drafting . The CEC allowed involvement of these parties by its special decree.
“We took the data of the Interior Ministry as a starting point and crosschecked them with the lists, provided by the parties. Those voters, who were on the both lists, were registered in the final one. Those voters, who were not in either of the lists, will be visited by special local mobile groups to confirm their eligibility,” Nana Devdariani, the Chairperson of the CEC explained.
The national data center, where all the data entry process is done, is working 24 hours trying to correct the lists. The center was set up with the technical assistance of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES).
The mass inaccuracies in the lists triggered mutual accusations among the political parties and the governmental structures. The Interior Ministry, which prepared initial voters’ data, claims that it has provided the old CEC, which was under the control of the pro-governmental parties, with the exact voter lists. Thus the Interior Ministry denies any responsibility for inaccuracies, pointing the finger at the old CEC.
On the wave of mutual accusations, the IFES which provided technical assistance in computerization of the voters’ data, was also targeted by several political parties.
“I would ask not to put the blame on the Interior Ministry or the IFES. I do not see their guilt in this situation,” Nana Devdariani, the Chairperson of the CEC says.
“I am not a prosecutor, but I would say that the old CEC showed complete neglect and irresponsibility towards the lists,” Devdariani added.
The Anticorruption Council and the group of independent experts also got interested in what seems to be a potential fraud in election lists. Legal expert David Usupashvili, Lasha Tughushi of the Anticorruption Council and Gocha Tskitishvili of the Institute for Polling and Marketing (IPM) launched an investigation in the process of development of the voter lists.
“I would not rule out that these [inaccurate voter lists] emerged as a result of sabotage. Inaccuracies in the lists, which obstruct normal functioning of the election administrations and might even jeopardize the elections, definitely needs to be investigated,” legal expert Davit Usupashvili told Civil Georgia.
“Some people say that we should wait, correct the lists and only then find the person responsible for inaccuracies. However, I personally believe that these two things should be done simultaneously. In other words, some people should work on correction and others, namely the Prosecutor General’s, which is not involved in the adjustment process, should investigate inaccuracies,” Usupashvili added.
It is anticipated that the details of the investigation launched by the experts will be known on October 27, when the news briefing of Davit Usupashvili, Lasha Tughushi and Gocha Tskitishvili will be held.