Voter Lists far from Compilation

Preliminary lists of voters will be posted at the polling stations on March 8.

Georgia still fails to fix exact number of voters on the eve of March 28 parliamentary elections. The voters are still urged by the authorities to contribute their efforts in compiling voter lists through voter registration procedures. The issue is rather problematic in Adjara Autonomous Republic, which has not yet submitted its voter lists to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

Data of 2,2 million voters, which underwent registration procedures for the January 4 snap presidential elections have already been computerized by the CEC – a move, which was welcomed by the international observers.

However, handwritten voter lists will be in use on March 28 anyway as those voters who failed to be registered so far will be able to undergo this procedure from March 8; however their data will not be computerized, as the CEC says, because of tight timeframes.

Election watchdog Fair Elections expressed concern regarding the possible inaccuracies of the voter lists, as the polling stations fail to recheck the voters’ data – name, passport number, address, date of birth. In case of revealing mistakes in these data, a voter will be deprived of right to cast ballot.

Issue of voter lists in Adjara Autonomous Republic is even more complicated. During the fraudulent November 2 parliamentary elections the Adjarian authorities used a voter lists in which 300,000 voters were registered. Observers claim the lists were over-inflated.

Observers fear that in case the same lists are used on March 28, elections will be doomed for fraud. Only part of the voter lists were submitted to the CEC from Adjara so far.

Chairman of district election commission in Adjarian capital Batumi Ednar Shamilashvili told Civil Georgia on March 3 that the complete lists will be available on March 4. However, he admitted, “the lists are not perfect yet.”

Chairman of CEC Zurab Tchiaberashvili has already urged the political parties and observer organizations to recheck the lists from Adjara after they are available.  

“If the Central Election Commission submits the copies of the Adjarian lists, we will recheck them and define, whether these lists are real or not,” Zaza Daraselia said. 
 
If the voter lists from Adjara Autonomous Republic fail to be rechecked and the elections are held through old lists, Fair Elections would seek for cancellation of election results in Adjara.

“Public confidence in the old lists is too damaged to conduct credible elections in Adjara,” Zaza Daraselia of the Fair Elections told Civil Georgia.

“It is not ruled out that the Adjarian authorities hold elections with the lists used at the November 2 parliamentary elections, that is inadmissible,” Zaza Daraselia added.

According to CEC, the preliminary lists of voters will be posted at the polling stations on March 8.  Up to March 21 voters will be able to check their names in the lists. In case of absence, they have the right to apply to the precinct commission and undergo registration. The lists double-checking will take place during March 23-27.