05 January 2008, 11:11
Observers state multiple violations at presidential election in Georgia
As of 6:00 p.m. today (5:00 p.m. Moscow time), the NGO named "The Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia" had recorded 190 violations in the course of the presidential election in Georgia. Georgiy Chkheidze, Chairman of the Association, has reported this fact today at a briefing held at the United Media Centre, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.
According to his information, the violations assume the facts of continued campaigning conducted by representatives of different parties at polling stations.
"This happened at the polling stations of the Krtsanisskiy Constituency in Tbilisi. There, in general, quite a lot of violations were registered at some stations, and we'll demand to nullify the totals there. Facts of voting into an unsealed ballot box have been fixed, for example, in Batumi and in Tbilisi, at the 10th Vakiyskiy polling station. Also, there are technical problems related to malfunctions or damage of the components of the marking devices, in such cases voting was not stopped, which is a violation. This was the case at the 21st station in Kutaisi. Cases were recorded, when voting was held under copies of person's identification cards, which is also a violation.
There are also cases when citizens are brought in groups to polling stations. I saw it myself at the 80th polling station in the Digomi District of Tbilisi. The people already had voting marks on their hands, therefore, they were not admitted to voting. But the fact they were let to the station is already a violation," Mr Chkheidze has noted.
As of 3:00 p.m., the office of the observers of the Coalition of NGOs, which unites up to 200 NGOs, have fixed over 40 violations made during the presidential election in Georgia.
Author: Edita Badasian, CK correspondent
