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| Voter registers at the precinct in Tbilisi |
The voter registration was launched on December 15. Before December 21, the voters will go to the precincts and fill out the special forms, which will enable them to cast ballot on January 4 snap presidential elections.
From December 21 to December 27, the precincts will make corrections to the voter lists. From December 27 to December 31, the Central Election Commission will make further corrections in cooperation with the Interior, Justice and Defense Ministries, as well as with other relevant state agencies. The finalized voter lists should be posted at the polling stations on December 29.
The opposition parties protested against this proposal claiming that the voter registration would lead to decrease of voters’ number. The Socialists party appealed the Supreme Court to demand cancellation of CEC’s decision over the voter registration, however the court did not rule positively on the appeal.
Chairman of the CEC Zurab Chiaberashvili said, “statistics of the registration [with 300,000 voters already registered] shows that the process is developing successfully.”
“We can not trust the voter lists possessed by the state agencies, that is why we decided to rely on voters,” he added.
Mess in the voter lists during the November 2 parliamentary elections triggered protest of thousands of Georgian voters, who were deprived of the right to cast a ballot, as they were not included on the lists.
The process of registration is hindered by the mismanagement of the precincts. According to the CEC, there are dozens of polling stations, which are not opened at all.
The CEC, with the assistance of the foreign donors, launched the media campaign aiming to increase the turnout of voters. Georgian television and radio stations broadcast TV messages calling the citizens to go to the precinct and undergo voter registration.
Mikheil Saakashvili, frontrunner presidential candidate, made televised address to the Georgian citizens on December 18 and urged them to register.
“If every second voter does not undergo the voter registration, the elections will not be held. In this case the legitimacy of the current leadership and the future of the country will be obscured by vague,” Mikheil Saakashvili said.
It is expected that Nino Burjanadze, the Interim President will also make the similar address to the nation.
The delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), which visited Georgian on December 16-18, said that the voter registration was the best way to make voter lists, however “not ideal.” The PACE delegation, led by Matyas Eorsi, monitors implementation of the commitments undertaken by the Georgian authorities in 1999, while joining the Council of Europe (CoE), focused on the pre-election situation in the country during their visit.
“Whatever decision it [CEC] had received, none of them would have been efficient in the current circumstances. I call the Georgian citizens to undergo voter registration actively,” Matyas Eorsi said at a news briefing on December 18.
He said that January 4 presidential elections would not be perfect; however, he expressed hope that no deliberate rigging will take place. “The current leadership of the country guarantees this,” Matyas Eorsi added.