03 June 2010, 22:00
"Law and Freedom": in Georgia, militaries were forced to vote for party in power
The Georgian NGO "Law and Freedom", which monitored the voting process at special polling stations for military servicemen at municipal elections on May 30, states that "the servicemen's right to free choice was violated"; they were ordered to vote.
"It was clear by the outcomes of monitoring that commanders of military units had been warned in advance about the mandatory appearance of militaries to stations and voting for the party in power, which was confirmed by respective facts and voter turnout that made 95-100 percent," runs the report on the elections on May 30, disseminated today by the NGO.
In the opinion of the authors of the report, in some cases commanders ordered their subordinates "to appear at the elections," while at special polling stations only one political force "enjoyed an unprecedented support." Also, the NGO has noted that oppositional parties had no opportunities to campaign in military units, as the IA "News-Georgia" reports.
So far, the Central Electoral Commission of Georgia, Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Internal Affairs made no comments on the charges put forwards by the NGO "Law and Freedom".
