CEC: Voter Turnout 34.79% by 3pm

Voters cast ballot in the parliamentary elections at a polling station in Tbilisi’s Saburtalo district, October 8, 2016. Photo: Guram Muradov/Civil.ge

1,222,634 voters, accounting for 34.79% of total number of voters, cast ballot in the parliamentary elections as of 3pm local time, five hours before the polling stations are closed, according to the Central Election Commission.

The figure is lower compared to turnout of 44.99%, which was by the same time in 2012 parliamentary elections.

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), which is Georgia’s largest election monitoring non-governmental organization, said that there were isolated cases of significant violations as of 3pm local time.

ISFED observers reported various types of procedural violations, among them 18 cases of improperly filling out documentation; two cases of presence of unauthorized persons at polling stations; two cases of not stamping and signing the ballot papers; two cases of agitation inside the polling stations; one case of voting with improper identification documents; a violation of secrecy of vote, and one case of disorder at the polling station.

Election precinct official marks voter’s finger with invisible ink to avoid multiple voting during parliamentary elections, October 8, 2016. Photo: Guram Muradov/Civil.ge

The group also reported 4 cases of voting without marking; system of marking a finger with invisible ink to avoid multiple voting is in practice in Georgia for a decade already.

Those four cases do not include the one involving Head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II; a video by Georgian news website Netgazeti showed the Patriarch, who has called for a high voter turnout, casting ballot in Tbilisi without undergoing voter marking procedures.

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