COVID Patients Placed in Clinics, Isolated Persons to Be Able to Vote in Elections

Patients infected with coronavirus placed in clinics and those in isolation will be able to participate and vote in upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for October 31. The portable ballot boxes will be delivered to them by the members of the specially created commission, the spokesperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Anna Mikeladze announced at a briefing.

"The election administration offers relevant services to all groups of voters in medical facilities and in isolation in order to ensure their participation in the October 31 elections and the realization of their right to vote. 

"In this regard, a special working group set up at the initiative of the CEC, consisting of representatives of the election administration, political parties, civil society and international organizations, held meetings and discussed the recommendations, based on which the mentioned persons will have the opportunity to participate in the elections with the maximum observance of preventive measures and sanitary-hygienic rules.

"Representatives of the special group will ensure the delivery of the ballot box to the patients placed in medical facilities and quarantined voters. At the same time, the voters in self-isolation, whose data are officially registered in the database of the relevant agency, will have the opportunity to apply to the election administration with a request for a portable ballot box service.

"It is noteworthy that the counting of votes will be carried out not in quarantine areas or medical institutions, but in separate, specially created polling stations, which will contribute to greater transparency of the process," Mikeladze said.

She noted that the offer of the election administration to open separate polling stations for those undergoing treatment in clinics and isolated voters and to provide services with portable ballot boxes provides maximum health safety.

"Each member of the special group, including all participants in the election process, will be equipped with the appropriate equipment, in particular, a disposable lab coat, mask, gloves, protective shield and sanitizers. The recommendations of epidemiologists will be fully observed, which will help prevent the spread of the virus," she stressed. 

By Ana Dumbadze