OSCE, PACE Say Elections were Held Mainly Peacefully in Georgia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, October 30
The violations and discrepancies, which we observed, do not pose a threat to the election results, - said Kristian Vigenin, head of the OSCE short-term observing mission sent to Georgia for October 28 presidential elections.
He hoped that part of the violations would be met until the second round of elections, which must be held until 2 October.
Vigenin says that voters should necessarily go to polls in the second round, cause more people to go to polls, the fewer questions remain.
"I believe that the violations and discrepancies, which we observed, are not of a large scales and do not threaten the election results. There were shortcomings in the pre-election period regarding the legal base, behavior of candidates and the private media. All this affected the election campaign, but the election day did not raise the kind of questions that would endanger the election results," said Vigenin.
PACE observers say that voting was well organized at polling stations and voters could make a choice without any obstacles.
"Georgia is a member of the Council of Europe and is monitored by its parliamentary assembly. The voting was well organized and voters could make a choice without any restrictions. There was a large number of the registered candidate, who was just using television time, which was harmful to the process," Andrzej Hunko from PACE said.
10 opposition parties declared in the summer that they would support the United National Movement presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze in the election race. However, they left their candidates registered in the candidate list of the Central Election Commission to receive free election time on TV, which was later used by Vashadze.
62 local observing organizations and 58 international observing organizations were monitoring the elections process on Sunday.
