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• 5th patient dies from COVID-19 in Georgia

  One more patient has died from coronavirus in Georgia, bringing the death toll to 5.

  According to the latest figures, the number of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Georgia has reached 411. 98 patients recovered from the virus.

  Three Georgian citizens are brought from abroad for medical treatment.

  Currently, 5015 people remain under quarantine and 573 – in inpatient care.

   

• Letters from Citizens to National Leaders: Endorsing Accountability for Global Peace Building at the UN General Assembly

  On March 14^th, about 30,000 people from all sectors of the society including government officials, religious leaders, heads of NGOs, media persons, and citizen gathered in Seoul, South Korea, to redouble efforts for the establishment of international law for peace.

  Hitting the 3rd anniversary this year, the annual commemoration of the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW) was hosted by an international peace NGO, Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), to share the progress of activities undertaken to introduce the DPCW to the UN as a resolution.

  The DPCW drafted by international law experts includes principles of peacebuilding such as the prohibition of the use of force, development of friendly relations, and peaceful dispute settlement. And it emphasizes international cooperation based on interfaith dialogue and civic participation to create and spread a culture of peace.

  Mr. Pravin Harjivandas Parekh, President of Confederation of Indian Bar, said “The strength of HWPL is to awaken and tie the civil with the idea of peace. The DPCW connects considerably with civil societies contributors since peace cannot be continued just through the voices of elites and institutional processes. It suggests civic societies function as the peace-building actors which aim for the implementation of the citizens’ advocacy encouraging a culture of peace.”

  Regarding a culture of peace, Ms. Anna Cervenakova, member of Human Rights Research Center, explained that it means a certain system of values where on the first place is a respect for human life, ending the war, armed conflicts or violence and taking action in promoting peace, human rights, fundamental freedoms, sustainable development, and environmental needs for present and future generations.

  According to the progress report announced at the event, the DPCW has been supported by Seychelles, eSwatini, and Comoros at the governmental level. At the international level, the inter-governmental organizations such as PARLACEN (Central American Parliament), PAP (Pan-African Parliament), and Centre for BBS (International Centre for Black Sea-Baltic Studies and Consensus Practices) have cooperated with HWPL for the enactment of the DPCW through signing MOU.

  Along with the official support from governments and international organizations, this year’s anniversary highlighted the “Peace Letters” to the heads of states and UN ambassadors in 193 countries. Written by global citizens, the “Peace Letter Campaign” as a part of advocacy plan for the international movement for peacebuilding by civic participation has been carried out worldwide to collect support from women, youth, and citizens for the establishment of a legally-binding framework for international law for peace.

  “Since 2018, IPYG has collected over 200,000 peace letters and sent them to the 7 heads of states: South Africa, Indonesia, New Zealand, Namibia, Malaysia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Korea. Starting from today, we have great expectations for its future. The first goal is to submit the DPCW to the UN General Assembly in the form of a draft resolution and have it adopted. The second is to create a new peninsula to achieve peaceful unification. Let us become all heroes of peace together,” said Mr. Young Min Chung of general director of IPYG. 

  After the first session, peace lectures on “Civil Society’s Role for Peaceful Unification, Exchange, and Cooperation of the Korean Peninsula” followed at the second session. This peace lecture was aimed to call for the collaborative efforts of civil society for peacebuilding among the two Koreas based on the principals of the DPCW.

  Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL said, “Korea has undergone much sorrow from the division, which still threatens our daily lives. When I was 20 years old, I had no choice but to join the tragic war. We need to listen to what the soldiers said. They blamed their countries. Do the countries compensate for the loss of life? There should be no longer victims of war in our globe. Should we stand still and do nothing in this reality?”

  “The unification of Germany was triggered by citizens, not the force or politics. Some might say that the military confrontation serves as a major challenge to peace and unification. Use of force must be dissuaded to achieve peace, which is also designated in the DPCW. It has principles to secure peace in our times. When we advocate peace to our national leaders, they can be peace advocates; But if they do not listen to their people, they will be offenders against peace,” he added.

  The host organization, HWPL, is a peace NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC and associated with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the UN DGC. For the purpose of ceasing all wars and creating a peaceful world as a legacy for future generations, HWPL has been carrying out 3 main peace initiatives - International law for peace, Inter-faith dialogue meeting, and Peace education.

• Information for Georgian Citizens Residing Abroad

  Due to high public interest concerning the second round of presidential election, the Central Election Commission (CEC) presents information about certain procedures and terms.

  In order to participate in the second round of presidential election, Georgian citizens residing abroad shall get consular registration or be registered abroad according to Georgian legislation.

  Georgian citizens willing to participate in the second round of presidential election of Georgia and lacking consular registration may already contact consular offices/diplomatic representations or visit website www.geoconsul.gov.ge of consular office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and register online at the consular registry.

  The final date to pass the list of citizens being on consular registration to the CEC is related with the date of the second round which will be defined by the CEC after summarizing October 28 election results.

  It is noteworthy, that according to the legislation, the District Election Commissions (DEC) shall summarize election results no later than November 8th at electoral districts. Accordingly, the CEC within its powers plans to define necessary procedures and terms for the second round of the election.

  In addition, after the CEC summarizes the final results of the first round, the CEC officially defines by ordinance the date of the second round of the election.

• Final News Briefing of CEC Chairperson

  Election of President of Georgia will be held on October 28th. Citizens of Georgia will elect the president for a six-year term. 25 presidential candidates participate in elections, including 19 nominated by political parties and six – by initiative groups of voters. 3 703 electoral precincts are ready to hold elections, including 55 precincts abroad and 11 precincts established in exceptional cases.

  Two electoral precincts were opened in Afghanistan for Georgian armed forces dislocated abroad where polling already took place and the vote counting will begin on October 28th in Georgia once the voting is completed.

  The Total Number of voters amounts to 3 518 877, together with persons registered abroad for elections, including 14 795 citizens registered abroad based on Georgian legislature.

  The Election Administration (EA) offered a number of services to voters to simplify the process of verifying personal and family data in the unified list of voters. Overall, voters used such services more than million times (1 182 031) and verified their data in the voter list. Voter lists and its public versions are placed at Precinct Election Commissions (PEC).

  On October 28th, at 08:00 morning all electoral precincts will be ready to serve the voters. Ballot papers are handed out to Electoral districts which are printed into Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani languages and trilingual ballot papers (Georgian-Azerbaijani-Armenian) are printed for certain precincts (4). The process of handing out the electoral documentation and relevant materials to precincts is being actively launched. Precincts are equipped with all necessary inventory.

  Two magnifying sheets will be available for voters with vision impairment and a tactile ballot guide for filling in ballots for blind voters every electoral precinct. Posters depicting the voting process is available for voters at every polling station. More than one-third of precincts are adapted for voters using wheelchairs, namely, 1264 adapted electoral precincts are available for voters using wheelchairs along with special voting cabins.

  On October 28th, in addition to Election of President of Georgia, Sakrebulo By-elections to be held through majoritarian contest will be conducted at 6 polling stations in Terjola and Samtredia municipalities where the total of 7 925 voters are registered. 8 candidates are registered for Sakrebulo By-elections (4 in Terjola and 4 in Samtredia). Voters participating in Sakrebulo By-elections at 6 electoral precincts will be provided with two ballot papers, one for the presidential election and one for Sakrebulo By-elections.

  In 2018, political parties and domestic observer organizations were enjoying the new technologies of the EA namely they were appointing members, proxies of the electoral subjects and observers at election commissions through online registration program.

  It is noteworthy, that more than 82 000 proxies of electoral subjects, more than 22 000 observers of 73 domestic observer organizations and more than 1100 international observers of 58 international organizations registered for the presidential election will monitor the elections. Electoral process will be covered by more than 2000 journalists of 125 media organizations; among accredited media outlets, 31 are international and 94 are domestic media organizations.

  According to election legislation, it is prohibited to conduct election campaign at the polling station on polling day. Therefore, we call on authorized persons at electoral precincts not to appear at the polling stations with advertising/agitation symbols and signs of electoral subjects.

  On October 28, it is also prohibited to place paid or free advertisements on TV and radio broadcasters and publish public opinion polls before the polling ends.

  Also, with regard to procedural violations on polling day, if proxies of electoral subjects and domestic observers identify violations, they shall immediately apply the relevant PEC with application/complaint; if the complaint is not responded appropriately, complainer may immediately appeal the above violation to upper DEC. Based on the legislation, any complaint submitted at CEC concerning violations detected at electoral precinct will be left undiscussed.

  On October 28th, at 20:00, once the polling process is completed vote counting procedures will begin. Following the drawing up the PEC summary protocols, they will be sent by relevant district election commissions to the CEC in earliest possible time and CEC upon its receipt will gradually upload summary protocols at special website www.results.cec.gov.ge.

  Summary protocols are being uploaded to the CEC results summarizing center and operators enter the summary protocol data in the special program.

  At the same time, those non-governmental organizations who are actively attending the CEC sessions and are monitoring the CEC activities and participate in the activities of the EA, may participate in process of summarizing results, more precisely, their respective observers may if they wish along with CEC operators enter PEC summary protocols in special electronic program.

  It is noteworthy that for ensuring transparency of the electoral processes, the CEC enables every interested person to observe the process of summarizing the preliminary results at the CEC via internet livestream. A 360-degree camera will be used to broadcast the process through CEC official Facebook account, Youtube and CEC official website”.

  CEC Call Center - 2 51 00 51 and online chat of the Central Election Commission will operate for 24 hours. Deaf and hearing impaired voters after registering at CEC web-page may receive relevant information in sign language through a video call. Armenian and Azerbaijani language speaking voters may receive CEC Call Center’s services in their respective languages.

  The CEC Media Center will also operate for 24 hours enabling representatives of the media and observer organizations to receive relevant information. The news briefing will be regularly held during the whole day at Media Center.

  According to the legislation, the EA is fully prepared to serve voters in a professional manner; we call upon voters to actively participate in elections. Also, we appeal to electoral stakeholders to respect the public interest, be highly responsible towards the electoral process, respect the rule of law, and support the conduct of elections in a peaceful and free environment and ensure the realization of the free will of the electorate.

• Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia

  The Georgian side has been informed through diplomatic channels by the Iranian side that a number of Iranian citizens have expressed their discontent with security procedures at the Tbilisi International Airport.
  Immediately upon receiving the information, the competent authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia made an immediate enquiry into the procedures conducted by aviation security officers at the Tbilisi Airport.
  The preliminary enquiry has found no evidence of wrongdoing, including actions insulting religious feelings.
  The Ministry has already reported the findings to the Iranian side. The inquiry results will also be communicated to the Iranian ambassador in Tbilisi.