Brussels, 27/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 September, Georgian and Ukrainian human rights activists voiced their concerns about the parliamentary elections in Georgia on 1 October. In the opinion of George Khutsishvili, the director of the International Centre on Conflict and Negotiation in Georgia, the electoral campaign is not fair. He criticised the over-representation of the current president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and his allies, and the marginalisation of the opposition, and he called for a European response. “I am not sure that the elections will be free in spite of the hundreds of observers. There will be more than 400,000 polling stations and they won't all be able to be monitored”, he said, highlighting the risk of double voting, of vote registration lists with false names, and of local administrations influencing the populations of small towns with promises.
Ukrainian expert, Mikhail Malkov, criticised the deterioration of human rights in his country. He believes that the maltreatment of prisoners is part of the system, as is the pressure on their close friends and family. He also says that Ukraine probably has 120 political prisoners and around 900 who have disappeared. He criticises the European Commission for assessing human rights differently from one country to another. “One standard acceptable for Georgia and not for Belarus”, he said.
Ambassadress tries to be reassuring. Answering questions from EUROPE, the ambassadress of Georgia to the EU, Salome Samadashvili, said that “there is a lot of publicity for all the political actors in all the country”. She added that in the opinion of the international organisations, this election will be the most competitive in the democratic history of Georgia. Samadashvili said that neither the international organisations involved in the pre-electoral control, nor the Inter Agency taskforce which includes NGO and opposition representatives, have said that they are concerned about the accuracy of the electoral lists. She also said that the taskforce had “responded” to a certain number of allegations of faults committed by civil servants, adding that NGO representatives can inform her of other specific cases they have noticed.
“The Georgian government is not aware of the presence of any political prisoners in our country”, Samadashvili said, going on to say that there is “no confirmation regarding the presence of political prisoners in Georgia by any reputable international organisation either”. Saying that the government had taken measures immediately after revelations of torture in a Georgian prison (see EUROPE 10694), Samadashvili continued that the new minister for prison administration has for a long time criticised the situation in prisons and has created a committee to conduct a full inquiry into the cases of abuse.
The Commission, for its part, recalls in a press release of 3 September that the commissioner for enlargement and the high representative have insisted on the EU's high expectations for the Georgian parliamentary elections. The EU has also called for an electoral environment which is peaceful, fair and in respect of electoral law. (CG/transl.fl)