Observers report violations at elections in Georgia

The number of ballots at the polling station in the Borjomi District was higher than the number of voters on the list, activists of the NGO "Young Advocates" have stated. Observers also announced a possible control over voters in Borjomi and Ozurgeti.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today the city of Kutaisi and five municipalities, where none of the candidates had conquered the 50% barrier at the first round, held the second round of local elections.

So far, the voting in Georgia as a whole is calm, said Anna Nachvleshvili, the head of the NGO "Young Advocates" (GYLA).

In the Borjomi District, observers saw some people outside the polling stations, who were counting voters, checking them with the voters' lists; and voters were brought in minibuses to two polling stations in the Ozurgeti District. This may indicate pressure on voters, or the use of so-called "carousels", the NGO activists believe.

Pikriya Mamardashvili, a representative of the NGO "Society of Georgian Parliamentarians", reports a similar violation at the polling station in Ozurgeti. According to her story, the policemen, whom she called to the station, tried to take away her video camera, the "InterPressNews" reports.

The report drafted by the NGO "International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy" (ISFED) states that the observations before the second round of elections in all six municipalities evidence the pressure and threats, especially in the Ozurgeti District.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.