GYLA Files Complaint with European Court Alleging Mass Violations of Voting Secrecy in 2024 Elections
By Liza Mchedlidze
Friday, March 21, 2025
The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), alleging "mass violation of the secrecy of the vote" during the 2024 parliamentary elections.
According to GYLA, the complaint argues that the Georgian government violated Article 3 of the First Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which, they state, "requires state parties to hold free elections by secret ballot at reasonable intervals in conditions that ensure the free expression of the people's will when electing their legislative body."
"The complaint has already been registered by the European Court," said Nona Kurdovanidze, Chair of GYLA. "The electoral administration's failure to properly fulfill its duties led to a mass violation of the fundamental principle of secrecy in voting, and the right to an effective remedy for electoral disputes was also violated."
The organization further argues that Georgian law unfairly restricts the ability of citizens to file complaints about electoral disputes. "The blanket provision in Georgian law, which restricts citizens' ability to file complaints about electoral disputes, does not comply with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights," the complaint states.
According to GYLA, they had already warned about potential risks to voting secrecy before the elections. The organization states that during training and informational meetings held by the Central Election Commission (CEC), they "identified risks to the secrecy of the vote" and urged election officials to take action.
GYLA claims that the CEC dismissed these concerns, assuring them that the ballots used in these meetings were only test versions. According to the organization, the CEC stated that "the ballots used on election day would be of a different quality to ensure secrecy."
However, GYLA argues that "during the 2024 elections, the CEC failed to prevent the appearance of colored circle marks on the back of the ballots," which they claim compromised the secrecy of the vote.
Following the election, GYLA states that it used internal legal mechanisms to challenge the results, requesting the "annulment of the results from 2,263 polling stations in 73 districts where the elections were conducted using technology."
The organization claims that "the principle of voter secrecy was violated on a large scale during the voting process, which undermines the constitutional electoral rights of Georgian citizens."
GYLA notes that at the national level, "only the Tetritskaro District Court accepted GYLA's complaint." According to the organization, the court conducted an investigation that supported their claims.
GYLA highlights that "the court randomly checked several ballots from the villages of Tsalka and Tetritskaro and found visible marker traces on the back of the ballots."
Furthermore, GYLA states that "Judge Vladimir Khuchua also conducted a voting secrecy experiment during the hearing, which confirmed a clear violation of secrecy when the ballots were inserted into the vote-counting machine."
Despite this ruling, GYLA reports that the "Tbilisi Court of Appeals annulled the decision of the Tetritskaro court."
Kurdovanidze emphasized the significance of the complaint, stating that it presents the European Court with "the opportunity to assess both the systematic violation of voting secrecy during the October 26, 2024 elections and the fairness of the system for addressing election-related complaints."
