Independent election monitoring group releases second interim report

An Independent election monitoring group has released its second interim report as it monitors the pre-election environment in Georgia.

Findings of a two-week monitoring period by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) revealed misuse of public resources, amendments to the budget and six cases of  possible vote buying.

ISFED have 73 specifically trained observers in Georgia to monitor the elections in all election districts of Georgia. The group published its latest report today, which covered the period from April 20 to May 11.

During the reporting period, ISFED monitored the pre-election campaign in all municipalities of Georgia.

"One important trend observed during the reporting period was misuse of public resources; in particular, in 7 cases ISFED identified a number of new projects initiated and budget amendments made by the ruling party during the pre-electon period. Further, ISFED's observers identified one case involving participation of unauthorized individuals in the pre-election campaign, 6 cases involving possible vote buying and one act of disrupting pre-election campaign," - said Nino Lomjaria, Executive Director of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy.

"During the pre-election campaigning representatives of the Labor Party made xenophobic statements, which we believe is utterly unacceptable and the party concerned should take adequate further actions,” the report said.

Particularly, ISFED identified gross gender inequality among candidates currently nominated by political parties, as there was "virtually no representation of women candidates”.

ISFED's coordinators attended 134 public meetings from April 20 through May 11.

This included 45 meetings held by the Georgian Dream coalition, 32 by Alliance of Georgian Patriots, 24 by United National Movement (UNM), 23 by Georgian Way, 21 by Nino Burjanadze - Unified Opposition, eight by non-parliamentary opposition Kakha Kukava and Pikria Chikhradze, six by the Labor Party of Georgia, two by Future Georgia and two by the People's Party.

A controversial issue identified by ISFED related to the electoral number allocated to United National Movement to use on opinion poll papers.

With its May 13 resolution, the Central Elections Commission decided to give UNM the right to use number five, which was the previous electoral number of UNM.

In response, ISFED lawyer Nino Janashia said: "We believe that the decision has been made on the basis of correct interpretation of election norms.”

The municipal elections will be held on June 15, 2014.

Seventy one local self-government bodies - Sakrebulos and 2, 088 members of Sakrebulo, 12 city Mayors and 59 heads of the local municipality - Gamgebelis will be elected in the local self-government elections.