The Head of the Central Election Commission’s legal department, presented statistics on the review of complaints related to the October 26 elections. According to Giorgi Santuriani, the complaint review process in the district election commissions has now concluded.
“Overall, 1201 complaints were filed with the district election commission concerning Election Day. Of these, 537 concerned declaring invalid the results of the Precinct Election Commission or recounting. 466 complaints were submitted with requests for disciplinary action, while 47 were submitted without such requests. The number of complaints requesting an appropriate response or action totaled 151.
Out of the complaints submitted, 167 were either fully or partially upheld, while 917 were dismissed. Additionally, 107 complaints, representing 8.9% of the total, were not discussed. The complaint was withdrawn in 3 cases. Only 10 complaints are being discussed at this point, which does not concern election results or is not directly connected to results and concern drawing up the protocol of administrative offence. The review period for the aforementioned complaints is 10 days, after which an appropriate decision will be issued.
As a result of the submitted complaints and the ensuing decisions, disciplinary measures were imposed on 290 members of precinct election commissions. A total of 12 mobile ballot box results were annulled on the commission’s own initiative, with related complaints also submitted concerning these cases. Additionally, the results from 12 precinct election commissions were recounted on the commission’s initiative, with corresponding complaints submitted for some of these recounted results.
In total, based on the grounds prescribed by law, the results of 427 precinct election commissions were recounted. However, the recounts did not result in any significant changes to the final outcomes. The overall changes can be considered minimal.
Additionally, I would also like to present information on complaints referring to drawing up the protocol of administrative offence. This pertains to complaints alleging potential violations of existing regulations concerning electoral campaigning or the misuse of state resources. A total of 114 complaints were filed. Majority of them concerned the agitation through social media. Overall, a total of 65 complaints of such nature were filed, and following review, 12 protocol of administrative offense were drawn up and referred to the courts.
The decisions made by the District Election Commissions were subsequently appealed to the general courts. Specifically, the cases in the courts of first instance have been fully resolved, while in the appellate courts, only one case is scheduled for hearing today. We have not yet received any information regarding the outcome. Therefore, the consideration of election disputes has been fully completed, both within the election administration and in the general courts”, - said Giorgi Santuriani.