TBILISI ELECTIONS UPDATE 01/10/2008

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TBILISI 000036

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CARC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM GG
SUBJECT: TBILISI ELECTIONS UPDATE 01/10/2008


Classified By: Ambassador John F. Tefft for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: On January 10 Ambassador Dieter Boden,
OSCE/ODIHR Observation Team Chief briefed the OSCE
Ambassadorial Working group, stressing that no systemic fraud
occurred during the January 5 Presidential Elections. On the
same day, Chairman of the Central Elections Commission (CEC)
Levan Tarkhnishvili gave some explanations for high voter
turnout in some districts, and the status of the number of
complaints received. He expected to announced final results
on January 13. Tarkhnishvili stated that even though the
votes in four different precincts had been nullified, this
would only affect the over all results by plus/minus one
percent and it would not affect the overall outcome of the
election.


OSCE Ambassadorial Working Group
--------------


2. (C) At a January 10 OSCE Ambassadorial Working Group,
Ambassador Dieter Boden, OSCE/ODIHR Observation Team Chief,
commented that there were serious problems with vote
tabulation at every fourth precinct election commission (PEC)
on the day of elections and more evidence of this surfaces
every day. He said that he had heard the opposition's claims
that there was voter fraud, but he could find no evidence to
support that this was a systemic problem. Boden noted that
ODIHR representatives had compared their short term observers
protocols (130 of 167) protocol information to the
information posted on the Central Election Commission (CEC)
website and no major discrepancies were noted.

Fraud
--------------


3. (C) Boden said that although the opposition alleges that
it has protocols which do not match CEC website data, no one
has provided ODIHR nor the CEC with copies of these
documents. He said that mistakes were made due to confusion
and incompetence rather than maliciousness. Boden did
acknowledge in some PECs there was a large number of last
minute voters who appeared between 1700-2000. Boden gave an
example of one PEC in Javakheti where according to the
protocol over 1,0000 voters were processed in the last three
hours that the poll was open. According to ODIHR analysts,
it is not feasible that the PEC could have registered 1,000
voters in a mere three hours. On average, it takes at least
40 seconds to register one voter. Boden said that the
turnout in Javakheti seems very high, and the opposition
points to this as fraud, but no one has been able to give a
clear cut evidence to support foul play. Ambassador Igor
Gaon, Council of Europe, said that the opposition did not
read the law and has not applied it correctly in regards to
their claims of fraud. He too felt that there was no
evidence of systemic falsification.

Violations
--------------


4. (C) Boden said that The Georgian Young Lawyers
Association (GYLA) and The Society of Fair Elections and
Democracy (ISFED) had filed complaints and some of them were
rejected at the PEC level and then appealed at the district
level. For those complaints which were rejected by the
District Election Commission (DEC),organizations only have
until the end of the day on January 11 to file a case with
the CEC or the court system. All cases at the CEC and courts
must be decided on January 13 when the official results will
be announced. Boden said that the opposition's claims have
not been substantiated. The opposition has held press
conferences to announce their concerns, but have not produced
the evidence to back it up. Boden thought their complaints
were neither realistic nor serious. He did add that due to
ISFED and GYLA reporting violations, the results of four PECS
have been nullified. In these precincts there were reported
instances of ballot stuffing, observers being denied access
to the precinct, or in one case in Mestia, the PEC chairman
took the ballot box home, no protocol was filed, so votes
could not be counted.


Press Gets it Wrong
--------------


5. (C) Boden said that his statements have been misused by
at least three Parliamentarians who quoted him as saying,
"The results of the January 5 Elections were like a guarantee
of democracy." Boden asked to clarify this issue on Rustavi 2
television to correct this misimpression, but was not granted
air time. He said he didn't think the media was playing a

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fair game. He intended to complain to acting President
Burjanadze.


ODIHR Reps Stay Longer
--------------


6. (C) Boden noted that the ODIHR core team would stay on
beyond their original mandate. They were slated to depart
originally on January 11, they will now depart on January 15.
Their next report will be released after their departure to
Warsaw but he does not expect it to reverse earlier
observations, nor that the report's impact will change
anything.

CEC Reviews Election Issues
--------------


7. (C) On January 10, Levan Tarkhnishvili, CEC Chairman,
briefed the diplomatic corps on election results, the
complaint process, high voter turn-out and "special PECs."
According to Tarkhnishvili, approximately 600 violations were
filed, most of them attributed to ISFED or GYLA. Out of
these 600, 10 had made it to the CEC level, and seven of
these had been addressed. He explained that complaints on
the day of the election should have been filed with the PEC,
or if rejected by the PEC, could be filed at the district
level (DEC.) The next level in the process would either be
in the courts system of Georgia or the CEC.


High-Voter Turnout
--------------


8. (C) Tarkhnishvili's spokesman, Irakli Porchkhidze,
attributed high turn out rates in some regions due to
"special PECs." He explained the "special PECs" as being
military units, hospitals, police, prisons, or other
institutions, which are subordinate to existing civil PECs.
This is envisioned in the Election Code. There are 73 of
these "special PECS" and the total number of voters can be up
to 2,000. These "special PECs" have a separate ballot box at
a separate location but the ballot box is taken to its
requisite PEC for counting at the end of the day. In theory,
the civil PEC should call out to the "special PEC" during the
day, before 1200 and 1700, to get the total number of people
who have voted, so this information can be included on the
protocol sheet along with other voters who have voted at
these designated times. Tarkhnishvili said that in many
cases this did not happen, and the end result was a sudden
jump in the numbers of voters listed on the protocol in the
last three hours of the day when these "special PECs" ballot
boxes made their way to their requisite PEC. Porchkhidze
disagreed that 1,000 voters could not be processed at the
polling stations in three hours time, saying that with five
people working the registration desk the process is faster
than in previous elections.

Invalid Votes
--------------


9. (C) Tarkhnishvili said that the votes voided from the
four PECs earlier in the day would not change the overall
results by more/less than one percentage point. Only court
cases would change the results in such a way to affect the
overall results, and currently there are no election
violation court cases pending.



10. (C) Comment: The Embassy has shared its concerns about
the election process directly with the CEC and expects to
receive answers by January 11. End Comment.

TEFFT