TBILISI — It is extremely quiet on the polling station at Public College No. 94 within the Afrika district. It’s nonetheless the morning and there are extra observers than voters.
There are a lot of observers monitoring the elections, some from native and worldwide NGOs. However political events even have observers — and typically they will appear extra like activists.
I’m sitting with two of them: Tsiuri Tsertsvadze from the right-wing populist Alliance of Patriots of Georgia and Anna, an unbiased, volunteer observer. After I ask Anna why she needed to watch the parliamentary elections, she says, “I would like justice to be achieved.” Tsertsvadze simply repeats one phrase: “Peace, peace, and peace.”
Employees from Georgia’s Central Election Fee convey again a poll field to the polling station. They’ve been out gathering the ballots of aged folks voting from residence.
Nini Chkhartishvili, who was entrusted with this job, tells me that the temper of the voters has been combined. However she herself is beaming with pleasure and asks me to take a photograph. “I’ve very excessive hopes, and elections are the day once we ought to expertise plenty of progress as a rustic,” she mentioned.
However not everyone seems to be such good spirits.Whereas having espresso with different observers in a ribbon-decorated first-grade classroom, I meet one other younger volunteer, 21-year-old Diana Tkhinvaleli. Regardless of her age, she is one thing of a veteran and has been going door-to-door along with her mom — a member of the Central Election Fee — since she was 15.
“Sadly, I haven’t got excessive hopes. I used to suppose that the Georgian Dream [ruling party] would win as a result of they might falsify the elections, however as quickly as I began going door to door, I spotted that individuals actually imagine what they’re informed: for instance that becoming a member of Europe means dropping their Georgian id,” Tkhinvaleli mentioned.
“I’m younger, I assist freedom of speech and liberal values, however [my heart sinks] after I have a look at the individuals who will resolve my destiny.”
“We would like peace,” say some aged folks standing within the wind and the rain. “I do not need bullets buzzing over my kids’s head,” one says. In its marketing campaign, Georgian Dream has mentioned the opposition events would drag Georgia into struggle with Russia and that solely the ruling celebration can guarantee peace.
On the polling station in Varketili, the traces are lengthy and I can hear plenty of heated arguments. Some persons are complaining they aren’t on the voter lists.
A younger election observer, who speaks to me on the situation of anonymity, tells me to concentrate to the Georgian Dream activists exterior and factors to what she thinks are suspicious-looking vehicles.
Outdoors, I see an observer from Georgian Dream, who’s prohibited by legislation from campaigning, proclaiming loudly that he’ll “get up the neighbors,” presumably to get them to return and vote.
Close by, teams of younger males are standing round their vehicles. After I level my digital camera at them, they get out of their vehicles and are available towards me, asking me why I’m taking pictures.
Whereas in Varketili, I communicate to 67-year-old Giorgi Loladze, who is usually apprehensive about unemployment. He additionally tells me how kids are going hungry at college, together with his two grandchildren. He says he offers them cash for meals, however they share it with a classmate who has nothing — after which they’re all nonetheless hungry. “Three meals needs to be launched in all Georgian colleges,” he mentioned.
At a polling station in Temka, I sit down with Ana Gogoladze, a younger observer of from the Free Democratic Institute, an NGO that promotes democracy, good governance, and human rights.
Simply earlier than voting, folks’s thumbs are sprayed with invisible ink. Once they enter polling stations, they’re checked with a UV gentle to verify they have not already voted.
Gogoladze tells me that election screens on the door are solely checking the spray markings on one thumb, when they need to be checking two. Earlier, she says, she noticed a younger man attempting to vote for a second time, “and that is why it is necessary to examine each fingers.”
I heard that the spray markings have been ignored in different places. One other election observer, who speaks to me on the situation of anonymity, tells me a couple of case when an individual did not have the proper markings however was allowed to vote anyway as a result of they mentioned they’d a pores and skin situation.
I rushed from Temka to Gldani, after I hear {that a} battle had damaged out polling station No. 60. A number of TV crews are already there, however the brawlers have moved to the close by park by the point I arrive.
I communicate to Ema Kordzakhia from the opposition Coalition for Change and an observer on the polling station. She tells me that the scenario that led to the scuffle was aggravated by an observer from Georgian Dream. “One man was right here for the reason that morning and was upsetting folks, making feedback, together with to me, after I tried to expel a voter who was attempting to vote twice,” she says.
It would not really feel secure right here working alone, so I be a part of Mindia Gabadze, a TV journalist, and go to a different polling station at a faculty. We’re met by a bunch of males wearing black, and once we begin filming, they go away the world cursing as they go.
At that polling station, I communicate to Levan Jagashvili, a member of the Central Election Fee. He says that the scenario has been dangerous for the reason that morning.
“A consultant of Georgian Dream got here in and instantly began filming an opposition observer,” he says. In keeping with Jagashvili, a confrontation ensued, and a few folks in masks arrived on the scene.
“There are such a lot of Georgian Dream representatives,” Jagashvili says, wanting round him. They’re hugging and winking at voters like outdated acquaintances, he says. “It isn’t falsification, however it looks like they deliberate all this prematurely.”