US Ambassador “impressed” by calm pre-election environment in Georgia

The United States (US) Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly has spoken of his positive impressions of the calm pre-election environment in Georgia when he met the country’s Minister of Internal Affairs today.

Earlier this morning Kelly sat down with Minister Giorgi Mgebrishvili and discussed a range of topics but primary attention was on Georgia’s October 8 Parliamentary Elections. 

After the meeting Kelly told local media he was "impressed by Georgia’s peaceful pre-election environment”. He accepted some incidents had taken place but these were not significant and had been quickly addressed by authorities.

During the meeting I was given details by the Minister about his agency’s efforts to ensure a safe and transparent election environment,” Kelly said. 

Kelly stressed he also had spoken with other state officials and he had received "guarantees” that the forthcoming elections would be conducted in a "free, fair and safe environment”. 

Minister Mgebrishvili said the meeting with the US diplomat was positive.

He added this morning the pair discussed the Memorandum of Understanding outlining cooperation between the Interior Ministry and Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) to ensure peaceful elections. They also spoke about a special decree issued by Mgebrishvili himself about police conduct in the pre-election and election periods. 

On another note the two leaders spoke about next week’s US visit of a delegation representing Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. 

The Georgian group is due to visit Baltimore in eastern US on September 30 where US authorities planned to hand over a special patrol boat to Georgia’s Border Police who patrol in the Black Sea, off Georgia’s west coast.

The Island Class Patrol Vessel weights about 1.8 tonnes.