05 January 2008, 11:01
NGOs fix more than 40 violations at election in Georgia
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.
Basically, seven types of violations are recorded: stay of policemen at polling stations, propaganda at voting sites for the candidate of the party in power, invalid voters' lists and presence of "dead souls" in them, mass delivery of voters by transport means, admittance to voting without marking.
The office of the Coalition of NGOs works in the non-stop mode. The information that arrives to the Coalition's office is then transferred step by step to the Central Electoral Commission for further reacting, the "News-Georgia" reports.
The NGO named "International Transparency - Georgia" informs about problems during voting at places of detention. "Firstly, a significant number of pre-trial detainees have no identification cards, and they could not vote. Secondly, the employees of imprisonment facilities vote at the polling stations not at their residence but at the places where they work," Tamuna Keraselidze, chair of the NGO, has stated at a briefing at the Media Centre.
The "Georgia Online" reports that Tinatin Khidasheli, one of the leaders of the Republican Party and a member of the United Opposition, reported at the briefing about severe violations in the city of Tsalka.
"All the oppositional members of electoral commissions have been beaten and expelled from the 19th, 20th and 22nd polling stations. At many stations the marking devices were damaged," Ms Khidasheli has noted.