8
THE GEORGIAN LABOUR PARTY v. GEORGIA JUDGMENT
500,000 ballots in favour of the presidential and pro-presidential parties at
12 noon, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on election day.
34. The Supreme Court found the latter allegation unsubstantiated,
reasoning that the applicant party had submitted no relevant evidence in
support of it. As to the voter registration rules, the court noted that the CEC
had issued Decree no. 30/2004 (see paragraph 23 above) by which it had
remedied the deficiency of Article 9 § 12 of the EC, the effect of which had
been suspended by the Constitutional Court on 26 December 2003 (see
paragraph 45 below). Since that Ordinance allowed voter registration on the
day of election, the allegation that the voters who had missed preliminary
registration deadlines were subsequently denied the right to vote was held to
be ill-founded.
35. Secondly, the applicant party complained that its representatives at
various levels in the electoral commissions had been prevented by other
members from fulfilling their duties properly. They had been threatened and
instructed not to write complaints about violations observed, namely when
votes cast in favour of the Georgian Labour Party were attributed to the
presidential and pro-presidential parties. The applicant party complained
that such permissive conduct was due to the composition of the electoral
commissions, since, in every commission at all levels, eight out of the
fifteen members were representatives of the presidential and
pro-presidential parties.
36. Thirdly, the applicant party argued that the impugned Ordinance of
18 April 2004 was contrary to Article 105 § 19 of the EC, since it did not
specify the total number of voters and the number of votes cast in each
district.
37. In reply to these latter arguments, the Supreme Court reasoned that
the applicant party should first have complained about the threats to its
representatives before a district court. However, it gave no response to the
complaint about the pro-presidential composition of the electoral
commissions. As to the CEC’s failure to include information in the
Ordinance about the total number of voters and the number of votes cast in
each district, the court stated that this was not a gross violation of electoral
legislation and could not therefore be regarded as grounds for invalidating
that administrative act.
38. Lastly, the applicant party claimed that the finalisation of the
countrywide election results without elections being held in the Khulo and
Kobuleti districts had been unlawful. In view of the fact that there were at
least 60,000 voters in those districts and that the applicant party needed only
16,000 votes in order to clear the 7% legal threshold, it complained that it
had been unlawfully deprived of a genuine chance to obtain seats in
Parliament. It noted that the Georgian Labour Party was, by and large,
supported in the Ajarian constituency.
39. The Supreme Court replied as follows: