The Tbilisi Court of Appeals has overturned a high-profile ruling that annulled election results in 30 precincts for alleged violations of voter secrecy, Anna Gvarishvili, a prominent Georgian journalist, reported in a post on social media on November 8.

In a mammoth 22-hour session that saw fierce legal arguments and escalating tensions at the appeals court, judges associated with the ruling Georgian Dream known as the “Judicial clan” overturned a decision a day earlier by independent judges, hailed by the opposition, that disallowed scores of votes as illegitimate.

Georgia’s controversial elections on October 26 returned GD with a majority 54% of the vote, which the opposition claimed was fixed. As bne IntelliNews reported, there was widespread voting irregularities, especially in Georgia’s regions. The dispute has since moved into the courts as the opposition seek access to the ballots to prove there were irregularities.

After the initial rulings that annulled some votes, the case moved to the Court of Appeals on November 7, the highest court in the country for a final decision. The Court of Appeals, led by Judge Dimitri Gvritishvili, a prominent figure in the Georgian judiciary, rejected all motions presented by multiple non-governmental organisations (NGOs) challenging the integrity of recent election results in Eastern Georgia.

The appeal stemmed from a decision by Judge Vladimer Khuchua of Tetritskaro District Court on November 4, who found that the secrecy of voting had been compromised in certain precincts. This landmark ruling, in favour of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA), provoked an immediate backlash from the Central Election Commission (CEC), which took the case to the Tbilisi Court of Appeals. NGOs also launched appeals on other election-related rulings from district and city courts, but the appeals court merged all cases into a single proceeding.

GYLA’s chair Nona Kurdovanidze criticised this consolidation, asserting it "violates the right to a fair trial,” Gvarishvili reports. In response, Judge Gvritishvili maintained that keeping the cases together was necessary since "the Court of Appeals is the final instance for reviewing electoral disputes.” He further explained that it would be inappropriate for different judges to deliver separate verdicts on similar issues, as this could result in inconsistent rulings.

During the appeals hearing, the CEC argued that Judge Khuchua had displayed bias, citing social media activity by his spouse. This led the appellate court to conduct an “experiment” replicating the conditions of the election to determine if vote secrecy could be compromised.

Kurdovanidze criticised the methodology, claiming the court “went to great lengths to conduct the experiment with artificial restrictions.” According to her, CEC-trained specialists arranged the ballots in a manner that contradicted pre-election protocols.

During the experiment, a marked circle was visible to observers, including Judge Gvritishvili, she alleged, yet he “refused to acknowledge it." One of the objections raised by the opposition is the ballot papers were so thin the marks made by voters were clearly visible from the back side of the paper, breaking ballot secrecy rules.

The ruling is likely to impact election-related disputes across the country. In Western Georgia, the Kutaisi Court of Appeals similarly rejected all challenges filed by NGOs concerning election outcomes, solidifying the judiciary’s stance on the election’s integrity.

This high-stakes decision, under scrutiny from local and international observers, may set a significant precedent in Georgia’s electoral law, with implications for future challenges to the country’s election oversight and judicial independence.