On January 11 of this year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe published a report on the parliamentary elections held in Georgia on October 31, 2020. The report noted that there was high confidence in the accuracy of the electoral registers. The document, as well as the report from the OSCE Observance Mission dated November 1, positively assessed the efforts of the Public Service Development Agency to improve the accuracy of the electoral registers. The Council of Europe noted that the registration process was continuous and centralized. The Public Service Development Agency actively contacted individuals whose records contained errors or inconsistencies to ensure they were included in the electoral registers. Additionally, voters had various opportunities to verify and update their registration information.
This assessment by the Assembly of the Council of Europe is a result of the efforts made by the Public Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice in order to enhance the databases.
In 2013, the Agency initiated and continues to this day a project aimed at improving electoral registers. Within the framework of this project, work has been carried out in several areas, resulting in: Approximately 10 500 deceased individuals’ data have been identified and excluded from the lists. More than 7 700 instances of duplicate data and/or forged documents were identified and annulled. Through fieldwork, biometric information was collected at citizens’ addresses and more than 3 500 entries in the database have been restored.
It is particularly significant that since 2014 Georgia has had a biometric electoral register in place, with each voter’s identification data accompanied by a biometric photograph.
Improving electoral registers was one of the key objectives of the measures implemented by the Ministry of Justice for the past nine years to promote the use of biometric identification documents. As a result, electronic identity cardswere issued to 2 888 436 citizens. Of these, 1 747 573 documents were issued at no cost or at a discounted rate, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of Justice.
For reference, 3 200 063 citizens were registered in the list of eligible voters for the 2020 parliamentary election with a biometric photograph, compared to only 778 207 such records in the electoral register in 2012.
