How the vote in Tbilisi ended

Tbilisi – It is very quiet at the polling station of public school No. 94 in the Africa district. It's still morning and there are more observers than voters.

There are many observers monitoring the elections, some from local and international NGOs. But political parties also have observers – and sometimes they can appear more like activists.

I'm sitting with two of them: Tsiuri Tsertsvadze from the right-wing populist Alliance of Patriots of Georgia and Anna, an independent, volunteer observer. When I ask Anna why she wanted to observe the parliamentary elections, she said: “I want justice to prevail.” Zerzwadze repeats just one word: “Peace, peace and peace.”

Employees of the Central Election Commission of Georgia bring a ballot box back to the polling station. They were out and about collecting ballots from older people who were voting from home.

Nini Chkhartishvili, who was entrusted with this task, tells me that the mood of the voters was mixed. But she herself beams with joy and asks me to take a photo. “I have high hopes and elections are the day when we should make great progress as a country,” she said.

But not everyone is in such a good mood. While drinking coffee with other observers in a ribbon-decorated first-grade classroom, I meet another young observer, 21-year-old Diana Tkhinvaleli. Despite her age, she is something of an experienced observer, having been going door-to-door with her mother, a member of the Central Election Commission, since she was 15.

“Unfortunately I don’t have high hopes. I used to think that the Georgian Dream (ruling party) would win because they would rig the elections, but when I started going door to door, I realized that people really believe something.” They are told: To Example that joining Europe means losing their Georgian identity,” Tkhinvaleli said.

“I am young, I support freedom of expression and liberal values, but (my heart sinks) when I look at the people who will decide my fate.”

“We want peace,” said some elderly people standing in the wind and rain. “I don't want bullets flying over my children's heads.” Georgian Dream declared in its election campaign that the opposition parties would drag Georgia into it War with Russia and that only the ruling party can ensure peace.

At the polling station in Varketili, the lines are long and I can hear a number of heated arguments. Some people complain that they are not on the voter lists.

A young election observer, speaking to me on condition of anonymity, tells me to pay attention to the Georgian Dream activists outside and points out what she says are suspicious-looking cars outside.

Outside, I see an observer from Georgian Dream, who is legally banned from campaigning, loudly proclaiming that he will “wake up the neighbors,” presumably to get them to vote.

Groups of young men stand around some cars nearby. As I point my camera at them, they get out of their cars, come up to me and ask me why I'm taking photos.

While in Varketili, I speak with 67-year-old Giorgi Loladze, who is worried about unemployment. He also tells me how children are starving at school, including his two grandchildren. He says he gives them money for food, but they share it with a classmate who has nothing – and then they're both still hungry. “Three meals should be introduced in all Georgian schools,” he said.

At a polling station in Temka, I sit down with Ana Gogoladze, a young observer from the Free Democratic Institute, an NGO that promotes democracy, good governance and human rights.

Just before voting, people's thumbs are sprayed with invisible ink. As they enter polling stations, they are screened with UV lights to ensure they have not already voted.

Gogoladze tells me that election observers at the door only check the spray marks on one thumb when they should be checking two. Previously, she says, she saw a young man who wanted to vote a second time, “and that's why it's necessary to control both hands.”

I've heard that the thumb marks were ignored elsewhere. Another election observer, speaking to me on condition of anonymity, tells me of a case where a person didn't wear the correct markings but was allowed to vote because they said they had a skin condition.

I rushed from Temka to Gldani, where a brawl had recently taken place at polling station No. 60. Several television crews were already there, but by the time journalists arrived, the thugs had already moved to the nearby park.

I speak to Ema Kordzakhia from the opposition Coalition for Change and an observer at the polling station. She tells me that the situation that led to the scuffle was exacerbated by a Georgian Dream observer. “A guy has been here since the morning provoking people and making comments, including to me when I tried to exclude a voter who wanted to vote twice.”

It doesn't feel safe to work alone here, so I join Mindia Gabadze, a TV journalist, and go to another polling station at a school. We were greeted by a group of men dressed in black and as we began filming they left the area cursing.

At this polling station I talk to Levan Jagashvili, a member of the Central Election Commission, and he says that the situation has been bad since the morning.

“A Georgian Dream representative came in and immediately started filming an opposition observer,” he said. According to Jagashvili, a confrontation occurred and some masked people arrived at the scene.

As he looked around, Jagashvili added: “There are so many representatives of the Georgian Dream.” They hug and wink at voters like old acquaintances, he says. “It's not fake, but it seems like they planned this all in advance.”