By Nina Akhmeteli: 12/26/07

Always cause for controversy, Georgia's voter lists are again setting off debate in one of the country's most politically sensitive regions, Shida Kartli. Updates to voter lists were supposed to be completed by December 22, but the wrangle over list management in this region, which neighbors the South Ossetia conflict zone, shows little sign of dying down soon.

The setting, though, is one of deceptive calm. In a narrow room with one computer in a building on Stalin Street, the central thoroughfare in Gori, Shida Kartli's administrative center, five district election commission members sit dealing with appeals and paperwork from 85 precincts and 94,000 registered voters.

Aside from commission makeovers, recent election code amendments have resulted in new precincts and redefined precinct boundaries. Urban precinct commissions now handle a maximum of 1,500 voters each, down from 2,000.

But Shida Kartli district election commission members affirm that the changes have not interfered with election preparations. Magi Abashidze, one of four Central Election Commission trainers holding workshops for precinct election commission members in the Gori region, said that problems on polling day are not anticipated.

"Every step of every member in commission is described in detail [in training materials], so I hope there won't be problems, but, of course, we can say it for sure only after January 5," said Abashidze.

Tamar Zurabashvili, the chairperson of one precinct commission located in a Gori school building, says that voter activity has been unprecedented, with individuals regularly coming to check and see if their names are present on the precinct's voter lists.

Rather than voter lists, Zurabishvili said that her chief concern is whether voters will know why they will have three ballots on election day - one for the presidential vote, one for a plebiscite on the parliamentary election date, one for a plebiscite on Georgia joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"The members of the commission should be mobilized, but also the voters should be informed before they come here, " Zurabashvili said.

So far as the presidential vote goes, one Gori resident asserted that attention has been keen. "We have different people supporting different candidates, but I think that most people's choice will depend on the promises of the candidates because ordinary people do not have a job and are living in hardship," commented Paata Sopromadze, owner of a small secondhand store in downtown Gori.

Sopromadze, like some other Gori residents, expressed confidence that the vote would be fair, but his assurances are not shared by the opposition.

The Gori office manager for lead opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze argues that various tactics are being used in Shida Kartli to prepare for a skewed vote in former President Mikheil Saakashvili's favor. Levan Terashvili alleges that, aside from voter intimidation, voter passports are being seized by local police and government representatives and that voter lists are "overflowing" with names of people who are either dead or do not exist. He did not identify these individuals by name. Similar views have been expressed by opposition members in other regions of Georgia.

Mamuka Paniashvili, head of the Shida Kartli office for candidate Davit Gamkrelidze's New Rights Party, claims that the voters' list contains "about 15,000 errors."

"According to our commission members, in every district in the region there are names of people who left Georgia about ten years ago or people who passed away a long time ago," said Paniashvili.

A door-to-door campaign run by the Central Election Commission this past fall and much touted as a remedy for incorrect voter lists has not corrected the problem, Paniashvili and other opposition activists allege.

"There are people who, according to the list, live in the ProCredit Bank building, in a wine factory and even where the city government is located," said Paniashvili.

Gori district election commission chairperson David Aduashvili, however, calls the errors in the list "insignificant," noting that the mistakes do not go higher than 1 percent of the total voter lists. Moreover, he continues, the opposition should acknowledge that it carries part of the blame for such errors, too.

"Opposition party members were also involved in the door-to-door program, so if there are any mistakes it is their responsibility as well," Aduashvili said.

In Shida Kartli's Kaspi district, not far from Gori, the number of registered voters has increased by roughly 18.7 percent since the 2006 local elections; the highest increase in the region, according to election watchdog ISFED. Gachechiladze campaign worker Khatuna Tatanashvili puts it down to stuffing the lists with "dead souls."

But Kaspi deputy district election commission chairperson Nodari Guraspashvili, said that he has yet to receive an official appeal from any opposition member about suspected errors in the voters' list.

"I know the concerns expressed by Mrs. Tatanashvili, but she neither appealed to us officially nor named even one person during our private talks," said Guraspashvili. The names of 500 deceased voters were removed from Kaspi's list after the door-to-door program, he continued, adding that "about 60 people" might have died since then.

"There might be single cases when a person who has died are still in the list, but it can't change the whole picture," said Guraspashvili.

"[This is] political rivalry," he said. "Rivals do not mean we have to kill each other."

Voter list corrections were initially supposed to be made by December 13; an opposition petition for a three-day extension was denied by the Central Election Commission. However, a later decision by the Inter-Agency Task Force, a structure set up by Acting President Nino Burjanadze to ensure fair elections, gave commissions until December 22 to update voter lists based on death data from the Civil Registry.

Justice Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of the Inter-Agency Task Force, has ruled out the possibility that voter list errors will be used for falsifying the elections, and has stressed that the agency welcomes cooperation with the opposition on this issue. The frequent case for such errors, according to Tkeshelashvili, is that families do not always provide timely information about relatives' deaths.

But opposition members' complaints against the election administration are not limited to incorrect voter lists. Activists, they say, are under pressure from and observation by law enforcement officials - a supposed interest parliamentarian Teo Tlashadze, the representative for the United National Opposition Council in Shida Kartli and a member of former Defense Minister Okruashvili's Movement for a United Georgia party, attributes to Shida Kartli's association with Okruashvili, who was born near here, and with his close ally, former governor Mikheil Kareli, who was ousted from his post in late September.

Although the United National Opposition Council reports that it has regularly informed domestic non-governmental organizations and international election watchdogs about the incidents, local Gachechiladze campaign manager Terashvili claims more observer attention is needed.

"I think that the region lacks attention from international and domestic observers who are more focused on the capital," he said.

The regional coordinator for Transparency International Georgia, which is monitoring the campaign and elections, said that although the organization had received reports of several " alarming" incidents about pressure being put on opposition members and voters by police and local government officials, they have not been able to confirm the accusations.

Gachechiladze campaign manager Terashvili puts the lack of confirmation down to fear. Victims of the alleged pressure, he argued, "are just frightened to talk."

But some ordinary Shida Kartli residents say they have not heard of any such incidents. Gori private school teacher Nana Antelava says that she has been visited by ruling United National Movement Party representatives who gave her a party magazine (The Way toward Democracy, already the subject of a voter bribery dispute for including free tickets to an amusement park in a recent issue) and her husband, a pensioner, a form letter from candidate Mikheil Saakashvili. The encounter, though, she said, was uneventful.

"They asked me whether I support Saakashvili, but didn't insist on reply and left when I told them that I will make my choice on January 5," Antelava said.

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Editor's Note: Nina Akhmeteli is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi.