RUSSIAN YOUTH GROUP DISPUTES GEORGIAN ELECTION RESULTS IN ETHNIC ARMENIAN AREA
Interfax News Agency
May 23, 2008 Friday
Russia
Moscow, 23 May: The Nashi movement, whose representatives received
accreditation to observe the Georgian parliamentary election on 21 May,
intends to challenge the results of voting in one electoral district,
Interfax was told at the movement press service on Friday [23 May].
"In support of our demand, we pointed to numerous violations of the
election process, including ballot-box stuffing, violations of the
inking procedure and other breaches that have prevented voters from
expressing their will appropriately," the Nashi press service said
in a statement.
The document has been sent to the district electoral commission in
the [mainly ethnic Armenian-populated] town of Akhalkalaki, the press
service added. [Passage omitted]
"In general, one can speak of large-scale fraud in this district, which
became possible, among other things, because of the total absence of
opposition observers," the head of the delegation of Nashi observers,
Konstantin Goloskokov, told Interfax. [Passage omitted]
"During the Georgian parliamentary election our observers operated
across the entire country. A huge number of irregularities were
detected at polling stations. Almost none of the polling stations had
lists of parties standing in the election. Voters were transported to
polling stations by force and people who had not lived in Georgia for
a long time and did not have the country’s citizenship were allowed
to vote," the press service said.
Nashi’s evaluation differs radically from the position of international
observers, who did not detect serious irregularities during the
Georgian parliamentary election.