Final Report of 2016 Parliamentary Elections Monitoring Program

On 25 January, Public Movement “Multinational Georgia” (PMMG) held the presentation of the results of 2016 Parliamentary Elections Complex Monitoring Program covering pre-election, Elections Day, Runoff Elections and post-elections periods.

Chairman of PMMG Arnold Stepanian opened the presentation, also the audience was greeted by:  Mr. Johannes Douma, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia; Keti Maisuradze, Deputy Head of the Project, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES); Ana Miqeladze, Spokesperson, Advisor of the Chairperson, Central Elections Commission of Georgia; Ana Natsvlishvili, Chairperson, Young Lawyers Association of Georgia.

PMMG has presented the report of the monitoring programme carried out for 2016 Parliamentary Elections covering pre-election, Elections Day, Runoff Elections and post-elections periods of Kvemo Kartli, Kakheti and Samtskhe-Javakehti regions with the compact settlement of ethnic minorities.

The elections monitoring program commenced on 15 July by launching the pre-election monitoring activities. The target area of pre-election monitoring covered the following constituencies with high density of ethnic minority population: Ninotsminda-Akhalkalaki #46 and Marneuli #35 and #36.

For 8 October Parliamentary Elections (first round of elections) PMMG conducted the Elections Day monitoring program covering 8 election districts (ED) of Kvemo Kartli, Kakheti and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions with the compact settlement of ethnic minorities: #46Ninotsminda-Akhalkalaki ED, # 35 and #36 Marneuli ED, # 33 Bolnisi ED, # 34 Dmanisi-Tsalka-Bolnisi ED, # 31 Gardabani ED, # 32Tetritskaro-Gardabani ED and # 23 Sagarejo ED.The monitoring program entirely covered # 35 and #36 Marneuli election districts as well as # 46 Akhalkalaki-Ninotsminda election district.

The Elections Day monitoring program was being implemented by 294 observers deployed by the PMMG. In total, within the framework of the monitoring program up to 50 incidents have been reported by the PMMG short term observers. PMMG has filed 27 complaints to the precinct elections commission.

For 30 October Runoff Elections PMMG carried out the monitoring of the Election Day proceedings in # 23 Sagarejo, # 36 Marneuli,# 44 Adigeni-Akhaltsikhe and # 9 Isani electoral districts.  In total, on the Elections Day 99 short-term observers were deployed, 35 incidents have were revealed by the short term observers of the PMMG and organization has filed 11 complaints to the precinct elections commission

Within the framework of presentation the electoral shortcomings as well as challenges as revealed in a course of conduction of the election monitoring program have been communicated with the invited parties. In addition, the respective set of stakeholders’ specific recommendations as developed by the PMMG have been presented to the audience aimed at the promotion of inclusive electoral environment in the electoral districts densely populated by ethnic minority voters. 

Pre-election, Election Day, Runoff Elections and post-elections monitoring program has been implemented with financial support provided by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia (within MATRA program), Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Georgian Young Lawyers' Association.

2017-01-25 18:51:17| | 9752