Evaluation of the Georgian Bar Association Elections

On 9 December 2017, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy monitored elections of the Georgian Bar Association (GBA) chair, executive board, ethics commission and revision commission members at the GBA General Assembly.

ISFED found that the election process was accompanied by certain procedural violations and technical errors. Substantial violation was observed at the end of the voting, namely, finding two commissioners in possession of several ballots of same kind, but illegal use of these ballots was avoided as a result of timely reaction to the violations along with sealing the ballot boxes by the Counting Commission and the assembly chair. Therefore legitimacy of the polling process was not undermined. ISFED found that despite irregularities, violations detected did not have any substantial impact on expression of the will of the participants of the General Assembly.

It is important to note that, the General Assembly Rules of Procedure did not provide regulations about an electoral system including about election of the GBA Chair, which confused the Commission. As a result, during the counting process the Commission had to review relevant provisions of the GBA Statute and the Law of Georgia on Lawyers about holding of the second round and identifying the winning candidate. In addition, it was problematic that the Law on Lawyers, the GBA Statute and the General Assembly Rules of Procedure do not provide detailed procedures for elections, leading to confusion and lack of organization.

Registration and Voting

A total of 2324 lawyers registered at the GBA General Assembly and 2048 delegates participated in polling. The Mandate Commission was in charge of registering lawyers and issuing mandates. Registration and issuance of mandates lasted from 10:00am to 3:00pm. The process was mostly peaceful, without any incidents, and it ended at 3:00pm sharp as prescribed by the Rules of Procedure.

Upon completion of the registration, the Assembly Chair announced the beginning of selection of the Counting Commission members, in compliance with the Rules of Procedure, and urged candidates to nominate their representatives for the Counting Commission. Following the nomination process, the Assembly Chair presented composition of the Counting Commission to the delegates; the delegates then unanimously approved the composition in an open voting. Afterwards candidates had an opportunity to address delegates, present their platforms and talk about their future plans, as prescribed by the Rules of Procedure

After the candidates delivered their remarks, the voting began. The process was peaceful in the voting area; however, overcrowding and chaos was observed between the tiers, where delegates were standing in the line to enter the voting area. There were lines near the voting booths, because the number of ballots and candidates to be marked on those ballots required significant time for the delegates. Violations of secrecy of vote were detected in the process, because some delegates circled their ballots outside a voting booth.

The flow of voters at the voting hall stopped at 19:35 but the Assembly Chair extended the process until 20:00, per candidates’ request, as he stated. The Assembly Chair announced that at 20:00 doors would close and no one would be able to cast a ballot.

At the end of the voting process at 20:00, there was a commotion in several areas of the polling place. The GBA chair candidate Davit Lanchava and his supporters claimed that power would be cut off and ballot boxes needed to be guarded. The Assembly Chair and the Commission quickly started to seal the ballot boxes. It must be noted that electricity was not cut off in the voting room and visibility of the process was not obstructed at any stage.

Sealing of Ballot Boxes and Counting of Votes

After the ballot boxes were sealed, at 20:01 the Commission did not allow one of the delegates to insert ballots in the ballot boxes. The delegate protested. At the same time, a member of the Commission entered a polling booth and upon exit she was discovered to be holding several ballots of the same color. After an observer pointed this out, other members of the Commission approached her and found her in possession of three ballots for election of the GBA Chairperson, with Davit Asatiani’s candidacy marked on all three. At the same time, a commotion also broke out in the opposite corner of the election hall: the GBA chair candidate Irma Chkadua claimed that she pulled out several ballots for election of the GBA Chairperson from another commissioner’s purse. As the ISFED observer reported, those ballots were unmarked. Neither of the two commissioners inserted the ballots in the ballot box because the Assembly Chair was already sealing the ballot boxes at the time of the incident.

Activities of the election commission were poorly organized. Number of ballots received by commissioners was not recorded so it was unknown how many ballots each registrar commissioners had received.

Some irregularities occurred after voting ended and during closing of the precinct. Commissioners left unused ballots and other documents unsupervised near the tables and in several cases unused ballots were counted by observers. Later two commissioners collected the unused ballots and took them to a different room together with the lists of delegates and other election documents.

A meeting of the Counting Commission took place behind closed doors for about an hour, without supervision of observers. Later, the Commission Chair announced that the commission deliberated about two commissioners that were found in possession of more than one ballot and decided to disqualify them from counting.

After that, observers were allowed at the meeting of the Counting Commission where the Commission counted signatures of voters (delegates) on the list. The process of counting and tabulation was public, followed the Rules of Procedures and took place at the voting area without significant incidents. However, the Commission lacked detailed procedures on how to count the ballots and in what order. The Commission did not elect a secretary of the meeting who would have been responsible for registering and documenting ballots that were cast. Instead, one of the commissioners spontaneously took on this function.

Recommendations:

For identification of the Georgian Bar Association chair, executive board, ethics commission and revision commission members, the Association must follow Article 12.2.b of the GBA Statute and Article 24.3.b of the Law of Georgia on Lawyers, which define number of votes that candidates need in order to be elected to fill corresponding positions.
The General Assembly Rules of Procedure must contain regulations about election system for all elected offices;
The General Assembly Rules of Procedure must contain detailed provisions and provide an exact and exhaustive list of election processes;
In addition to the chair, the Counting Commission should also select the commission secretary who will be in charge of documenting activities of the electoral commission and the election process;
Number of ballots issued to registration commissioners should be strictly accounted for;
Commissioners should be responsible for counting and sorting of documents (ballots, election lists, etc.) that they have been given, both during and after the polling process;
Activities of the Counting Commission should be transparent during every stage and the decision-making process should be open and accessible for all authorized individuals;
To ensure independence of the process, candidates should not be allowed at the polling station premises, except for casting a ballot;
To ensure that procedural violations by lawyers during the GBA elections are responded, the law and the GBA Statute should prescribe sanctions and procedures for imposing those sanctions;
To avoid delay of the counting process and improve transparency, counting of votes for candidates elected through an open list should be conducted by registering votes through an electronic table.

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12.12.2017