Election Commission Chair urges parties involved in elections to refrain from spreading “unverified” information about members of body

Giorgi Kalandarishvili, the Chair of the Georgian Central Election Commission, on Thursday urged parties involved in the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26, as well as media, local and international monitoring organisations to refrain from spreading “incorrect, unverified and baseless” information about members of the election administration staff.

Kalandarishvili said one of the representatives of the the opposition-leaning TV Pirveli channel had allegedly attempted to “illegally process personal information” about employees of the CEC.

In his reaction, Kalandarishvili stressed spreading “disinformation” was “damaging” the pre-election environment.

[Election administration] staff members, as well as members of the Commission at any level, should be assessed by their work, their actions, and not by fabricated, manipulative circumstances, which, of course, harm not only the institution and its reputation, but also the pre-election environment in general”, the Chair said.

The Commission Chair added “any attempt to illegally process personal information” about the staff of the body would be examined by the Personal Data Protection Inspector, while international partners would be also informed.

The official further vowed the administration would “do everything to protect legal interests” of its employees.