Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) say that the violations reported during yesterday’s municipal run-offs in Georgia could have influenced the election results. 

ISFED says that the run-offs were mostly well-administered. 

However, the organisation states that the detected violations, including ‘possible cases of vote-buying,’ could have influenced the final results in the municipalities where the differences between the votes are small.

TI Georgia says that since the elections in many precincts were concluded with a rather narrow margin, ‘the violations and problematic tendencies’, encountered both, in the pre-election period and on Election Day, might have had a ‘serious impact’ on the ability of voters to exercise their free choice, as well as on the final results of the elections. 

“Therefore, the public could have legitimate questions with regards to the overall fairness of the elections,” TI Georgia said. 

According to final results, the ruling Georgian Dream party has won 19 of 20 mayoral races in yesterday’s municipal election run-offs.