Elections in Georgia: first violations

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), a non-governmental organization that monitors the country’s elections, has released its first assessment of the local self-government elections in Georgia on October 2.

According to observers, almost a quarter of polling stations were not ready for the start of voting at 08:00 which is a significant deterioration compared to the corresponding data as of 2017.

The organization’s observers were allowed to enter almost all polling stations and observe without restrictions, but their right to observe the process at some polling stations was limited.

ISFED writes that in the immediate vicinity of the polling stations there are so-called coordinators who keep a register of voters arriving at the polling station.

It is also noteworthy that campaign materials can be seen within 25 meters of some polling stations. In some cases, there were violations of voting procedures.

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The voting procedure began at 08:00 and will last all day. Polling stations will be closed at 20:00. All this time, advertising and campaigning of political parties is prohibited.

43 electoral subjects were registered for the October 2 elections. The candidate with more than 50% of the vote in the mayoral election wins. At the same time, as a result of the electoral reform, a threshold of 40% is applied for the election of majority city councilors.