Georgia toughens requirements for int'l observers

The Electoral Code of Georgia establishes new criteria for the selecting international observers.

Under the bill, a country or an organisation should express respect for the laws of Georgia, its sovereignty and international human rights standards to send monitors to Georgia.

Among the requirements applied to observers is to refrain from interfering in the electoral process, and to be independent missions with transparent sources of funding.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs Pavle Kublashvili said minimum criteria that can satisfy any observer mission were established. He said that perhaps, Russia would have a desire to send its observers to Georgia and "stir up" trouble.

"If a state does not recognise the sovereignty and laws of Georgia, especially since the territories of Georgia are occupied, the motivation of its participation in the electoral process is obvious," Kublashvili said.
Technical amendments are also made to the Electoral Code??. Kublashvili said that it follows from the current code that supposedly an international organisation may have only two observers across the country.

"We specify the quota - an organisation can have at each polling station no more than two international observers," the deputy said.

The parliament will discuss amendments to the Electoral Code on second reading next week.


/Trend/