ISFED calls on ruling party to cease discrediting campaign against the organisation

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) is concerned about the ruling Georgian Dream’s discrediting campaign against the organisation’s election monitors, reads an official statement of the ISFED.

The statement reads that on August 1, MP Irakli Beraia verbally insulted an election monitor of the organisation, who was observing the presentation of the ruling party’s mayoral candidate. Beraia called the observer a ‘liar’ and said she was representing a ‘fraudulent’ and 'United National Movement-abetted’ organisation.

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On July 29, at a meeting in Tbilisi with Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani researchers, MP Givi Mikanadze said ISFED was an observer organisation with ‘low standards’, after finding out that an election monitor of the organisation was present at the event.

Intensified aggressive rhetoric and personal attacks on members of the organisation by high-ranking politicians are alarming. It hampers the work of the observer organisation and amounts to pressure on its observers and the organisation as a whole. It also comes in contradiction with democratic principles and values”, says ISFED.

ISFED calls on the ruling Georgian Dream party to immediately cease pressure on the organisation and its observers and reminds the party members that ensuring a safe and constructive environment for observer organisations is the government’s responsibility.

Read the full statement here.