The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has begun a substantive review of the application filed by the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) concerning the 2024 parliamentary elections, the organization announced.
“The court has emphasized that the case may be granted the status of a matter of significant impact. The case concerns widespread violations of the secrecy of the vote. GYLA will share the details of the case with the public tomorrow,” the association stated.
None of the opposition parties recognize the results of the parliamentary elections held on October 26, 2024, in which the ruling party, Georgian Dream, officially received 53.932% of the vote. All opposition parties have raised allegations of fraud.
Local civil society organizations that monitored the elections have also filed complaints regarding electoral violations. GYLA demanded that the results be annulled in all 2,263 precincts where technology was used in the voting process. GYLA argues that on election day, the principle of the secrecy of the vote was massively violated, infringing the constitutionally guaranteed electoral rights of citizens.
The only court to rule in GYLA’s favor was the Tetritskaro District Court. Judge Vladimir Khuchua confirmed a violation of voting secrecy through an experiment conducted during the trial. However, the Tbilisi Court of Appeals overturned this decision. In other cases, appellate courts upheld the decisions of first-instance courts. The courts also rejected election complaints filed by other observer organizations.
With this, the domestic legal process has concluded.
The case has now moved to the Strasbourg court.
The photo shows the court’s official communication containing information related to GYLA’s complaint, including the case title, case number, and the date the case was submitted.
