Chairman of the Central Election Commission addresses district and precinct election commissions.

“With just 17 days remaining until the October 26 elections, the election administration is operating at full capacity to ensure a professional and internationally compliant process. A total of 3,031 election precincts have been established nationwide, with 2,263 using electronic voting and 768 conducting traditional voting.

More than 52,000 members of district and precinct election commissions will administer this election nationwide. Over 26,000 were selected by the election administration, with the remaining appointed by authorized political parties.

Today, I would like to address all district and precinct election commission members, urging them to uphold the election code and adhere to the principles outlined in the code of ethics, which we, CEC along with the district and precinct election commissions have signed. By signing the Code of Ethics, we committed to ensuring that all election administrators uphold the law, maintain political neutrality, and conduct their duties with integrity, independence, impartiality, objectivity, and transparency. It is worth noting that for the October 26 elections, we amended the code to strengthen standards of impartiality and political neutrality in our operations. High ethical standards will help further strengthen public trust in the election administration and the overall election process.

Based on the above, I recommend that district and precinct election commissions avoid any actions that could be seen as supporting or opposing any election subject, this includes refraining from using personal social media pages for political appeals or campaigning, attending pre-election meetings of parties or candidates, and keeping their professional duties as separate from political processes as possible.

Elections are a common cause, and we must prioritize upholding these principles and international standards in election administration, setting the highest example for stakeholders to perform their work.

We would like to remind you that the members of the precinct election commissions are actively exercising their powers, and we will provide a brief overview of some statistical data.

As of October 6, a total of 51,256 heads and members of precinct election commissions have been elected or appointed across 3,031 election precincts. Of these, 26,044 (3,031 chairpersons, 3,029 deputy chairpersons, 3,028 secretaries, and 16,956 members) were elected by the election administration, while 25,212 members were appointed by the respective authorized parties. Of these, 3,030 members were appointed by “Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia”, 3,024 by “United National Movement”, 2,952 by “European Georgia-Movement for Liberty”, 3,002 by “Yes to Europe - Strategy Aghmashenebeli”, 3,013 by “Aleko Elisashvili-Citizens”, 1,295 by “New Political Center” (“Girchi”), 3,015 by “Strong Georgia - Lelo, For People, For Liberty!”, 2,997 by “European Socialists”, and 2,884 by “European Democrats of Georgia”.

Additionally, within the authority defined by law, district election commissions select two members for a special group to handle mobile ballot boxes in precincts where more than one box will serve voters on Election Day. A total of 1,245 members have been elected to this special group by the district election commissions.