Nino Dolidze talks persecution and pressure on 'Fair Elections' from the government
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
The head of 'Fair Elections' (ISFED) Nino Dolidze once again spoke about the Ruling party 'blocking' the organization from working group meetings of the revision of the Electoral Code and said that this decision is 'selective and discriminatory':
"The accusation that 'Fair Elections' wanted to participate in the formation of the government is not true, because the organization has never made any statement regarding the formation of the government, neither expressed a desire nor a demand in this regard, " Nino Dolidze said.
Nino Dolidze also talked about persecution and pressure on 'Fair Elections' by the government. According to her, it is very important for the country to fulfill the 12-point recommendation that the European Union presented to Georgia.
"Here, one of the main things was the active involvement of civil organizations, and it was for this purpose that 'Fair Elections' decided to participate in working groups with other organizations, where we wanted to use whatever knowledge and experience we have in this direction for the European integration of the country and actually carry out such a reform that would receive a positive assessment from the European Commission, in the electoral section.
As for the blocking of our organization in this task force, I think it was selective and discriminatory. Not with other organizations, but only for 'Fair Elections' they had a request to separate from rallies and various types of political announcements. I say once again, that civil organizations stood together at the rallies for our European future, for the fact that we want integration and candidate status in Europe.
As for the allegation that 'Fair Elections' wanted to participate in the formation of the government, it is not true, because the organization has not made any statement regarding the formation of the government, nor expressed any desire or demand in this part.
Civil organizations stood together at the rallies, and this demand in relation to 'Fair Elections' only, is discriminatory. I think it is not only discriminatory, but this demand has been continuing for so long, I think it is persecution and pressure on our organization", said Dolidze.
Nino Dolidze believes that the reason for the remarks of the ruling party towards the organization is related to the error revealed during the 2020 elections and PVT, regarding which 'Fair Elections' made an explanation and took responsibility for the error, which implies a change of director.
"The organization admitted the mistake, although the director was changed, despite this, the same accusations still continue regarding PVT, although the ruling party knows very well that it was a mistake and was not in any way a deliberate or planned revolutionary scenario," she said.
According to her, it is important for the authorities to understand what the controlling Watch Dog organization means, that they often criticize, and because of this, the persecution of the organization is unacceptable and unimaginable in a democratic society.
"'Fair Elections' is an independent and impartial organization in whose decisions no one can interfere, and obviously, the organization has no political affiliation or interest. It is in our interest that the elections are held freely and fairly, when violations occur during the elections, of course, we are talking about this," Dolidze said.
She answered the question of whether she considers the demand for the resignation of the government to be biased by the organization.
"We do not consider the request for resignation to be biased, because it was a question of a specific person in the executive authority taking responsibility for the status of a candidate for the European Union. There was no talk of any unconstitutional demand here, or specifically talk against the 'Georgian Dream' party, nor was there a demand for Snap elections," said Nino Dolidze.
In addition, as Nino Dolidze pointed out, the hostile attitude towards 'Fair Elections' on the part of 'Georgian Dream' has been felt since she herself was appointed as the head of the organization.
According to Nino Dolidze, despite this, the organization tried to cooperate with the ruling party.
