ISFED's second Interim Report (Press Release)
On May 15, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy published second interim report of monitoring local self-government elections. The repot covers the period from April 20 through May 11. ISFED is monitoring the elections in all election districts of Georgia by means of 73 long-term observers who were previously trained and prepared for the monitoring.
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.
ISFED's coordinators attended total of 134 public meetings from April 20 through May 11, 2014, including 45 meetings held by the coalition Georgian Dream, 24 by the Unite National Movement, 21 by Nino Burjanadze - Unified Opposition, 6 by the Labor Party of Georgia, 2 by the Future Georgia, 23 by the Georgian Way, 32 by the Alliance of Georgian Patriots, 2 by the People's Party and 8 by the Non-parliamentary opposition Kakha Kukava, Pikria Chikhradze.
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.
One controversial issue identified during the reporting period was related to the electoral number to be used by the United National Movement on the ballot papers. With its May 13, 2014 resolution the Central Elections Commission decided to give the UNM right to use number five. We believe that the decision has been made on the basis of correct interpretation of election norms, - stated Nino Janashia, lawyer of ISFED.
Notably, ISFED identified gross gender inequality among candidates currently
nominated by political parties, as there is virtually no representation of women candidates.
For ISFED's recommendations and assessments of pre-election violations please view the second interim report at www.isfed.ge. Information about violations reported during the pre-election period is available at the joint elections web-portal of NGOs at www.electionsportal.ge.
This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of ISFED and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Election activities including this report are kindly supported by the Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia.