A news briefing on completing the polling process was conducted at the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia. As Ana Mikeladze, the CEC Spokesperson announced at the news briefing, all election precincts were closed at 20:00 according to the legislation.
“1 637 956 voters participated in the polling as of 20:00, which amounts to 46.74 % of total number of voters. The highest voter turnout was observed in Keda - 64.74 % and the lowest turnout was in Marneuli - 36.47 %. As for Tbilisi, voter turnout by 20:00 is 45.4 %. If we compare the voter turnout data to 2013 presidential election data, voter turnout in 2013 was 46.6 %. It is worth noting, that the voting process at the election precincts was conducted in a peaceful environment” – stated Ana Mikeladze.
According to the CEC Spokesperson, today, the CEC Call Center worked uninterruptedly. During the day, in total the CEC Call Center received 1 746 incoming calls and 497 messages were received via online chat. Majority of the calls referred to the verification of personal data in the unified list of voters, addresses of election precincts and précising the election procedures.
Vote counting procedures have been launched after closing the election precincts. After drawing up the election precinct summary protocols and completing all electoral procedure envisaged by the legislation, the protocols will be delivered to the relevant District Election Commission (DEC). DECs will upload the summary protocols in the Election Process Management System (EPMS) within the shortest possible time. Upon the receipt of PEC summary protocols the CEC will gradually publish them at the special website www.results.cec.gov.ge.
“Any interested person will have an opportunity to observe the process of summarizing preliminary election results at the CEC using internet livestreaming, which will be ensured through the 360 degree video camera and will be available at the CEC Facebook page, YouTube and official CEC website.
It worth noting, that four domestic observer organizations expressed their willingness to join the initiative suggested by the CEC and their observers along with the CEC operators will participate in the process of entering PEC summary protocols’ data in the program.
Ana Mikeladze also briefed the media about the submitted complaints. In total, 364 complaints are submitted at all District Election Commissions by the representatives of local observer organizations and election subjects. The complaints mainly refer to the procedural shortcoming and the majority of them were resolved at the election precinct. Majority of the complaints submitted at the DECs request imposing disciplinary liability measures to commission members and annulment of voting results at two election precincts.
“Hereby, we would like to deliver information about various procedural shortcomings, for instance: an attempt to hinder the work of Precinct Election Commission by the election subject proxy was observed at N52 Marneuli election precinct. By the decision of the commission decision, the representative left the election precinct. Attempts to hinder the working process at N49 and N110 Kuatisi and at N6 Batumi election precincts, however after verbal notice the incidents were eliminated. At N49 Akhalkalaki PEC, the voter tried to vote without identification card. The commission did not allow the voter to cast the vote. Election subject representative did not let the observer of local observer organization “Multinational Georgia” to enter N26 Ninotsminda election precinct, as if the observer had a false registration certificate. After verifying the information the observer was allowed to enter to the Election precinct. An information was disseminated that at N18 Marneuli PEC four voters participated in elections using the Identification card with expired term. In one case the voter came to the election precinct with expired ID card, however, after the PEC explained that it was not possible to vote with the presented document, the voter casted vote using the passport of Georgian citizen. In other three cases, voters possessed Perpetual ID cards accordingly they could participated in elections” Stated Ana Mikeladze.
Currently votes of two election precincts of Afghanistan are being counted. The results will be available upon drawing up the summary protocols at the CEC website.
At the end of the news briefing, Ana Mikeladze thanked voters on behalf of the Election Administration for active participation in election.