Georgian NGOs claim violations during election campaign

In the course of the election campaign, brawls and scandals of supporters of the ruling party with the opposition were often registered in Georgia; administrative resources were used; attempts to bribe voters and put pressure on civil servants were recorded, the local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 31, the Georgian President, Salome Zurabishvili, signed a decree to appoint the country's parliamentary elections and the elections to the Supreme Council of the Adjarian Autonomy for October 31, 2020.

The Young Lawyers' Association has claimed that it had revealed a number of violations during the election campaign. According to NGO observers, most frequent violations were pressure and violence, the use of administrative resources, bribing voters, and disruption of the election campaign. Besides, cases were recorded when parties neglected the need to distinguish between the activities of the state and of the ruling party, which is prescribed in the legislation; as a result of which during the election campaign the parties announced state projects, says the NGOs' report released on October 29.

The report presents eight cases of pressure and violence during the election campaign, most of them in the Kvemo Kartli region.

The NGOs Transparency International Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy and the Charter of Journalistic Ethics have revealed, during their joint monitoring of the election campaign, about 60 cases of bribing voters by the ruling party and the opposition, as well as over 80 cases of pressure on civil servants.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 31, 2020 at 05:33 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.