The report, published by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), an independent non-profit NGO established in 1995, comes on the heels of widespread allegations that the election, which resulted in another term in office for the governing Georgian Dream party, failed to meet democratic standards.
Salome Zourabichvili, the Georgian president, has refused to accept the result, calling it a “complete falsification.”
Analyzing figures published by the Central Election Commission (CEC), the ISFED found unusual patterns in gender voter turnout, raising questions about the integrity of the election process on October 26.
“Initial analysis of the provided data revealed that, in many polling stations, the difference in female and male voter turnout rates deviates from the normal distribution and displays characteristics that are practically improbable or unnatural,” the ISFED reported.
It said that at 62 polling stations, male turnout ranged between 80% and 100%, while female turnout averaged only 57%, and at 23 stations, the number of participating male voters surpassed those registered, the report found.
“At least 6 polling stations show a male voter turnout higher than 100%, even under the theoretical assumption that all voters registered in the special list at these stations were men,” the ISFED said.
“If valid, such illogical data indicates manipulations occurring at these polling stations,” it added.
The report also cast doubt over the official figures, which, at first, showed that more males had voted and that the overall number of votes may have been underreported.
The gender breakdown from the October 26 election data published by the CEC initially showed that there were 961,751 female voters compared to 1,098,661 male voters, with the total being 2,060,412.
However, ISFED’s analysis of polling station data painted a different picture. It found that there were 1,053,662 female voters while there were 1,009,686 male voters. The total came to 2,152323.
Following ISFED’s inquiry, initial CEC data was replaced with new figures matching district-level summaries. Yet, gender composition inconsistencies persisted across 15 districts.
“All of this raises questions with the Election Administration,” ISFED asserted, as the CEC’s data showed discrepancies between polling station participation numbers and official result protocols.
ISFED is set to release updated findings following its request for data on special voter lists.
