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NGOs’ Address to the President of Georgia

2010-01-18 08:04
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To the President of Georgia, Mr. Saakashvili:

Upcoming local self-governance elections 2010 is perceived both inside and outside the country as another test of the readiness of the Georgian authority and the political spectrum of the country to hold fair and free elections and promote strengthening of democratic institutions.  The initiative of the ruling party and the president on selecting of the Central Election Commission (CEC) chairperson candidates to be presented to the representatives of opposition parties in CEC in consultation with non-governmental organizations has received positive feedback; but we, the representatives of the 27 non-governmental organizations that have offered you a common candidate have several questions regarding the three candidates that you have ultimately selected; namely:

1. Why have you chosen the candidates named by single NGOs and excluded the candidate supported by 27 NGOs? Hereby, we would like to remind you that many of the 27 NGOs work in the field of election monitoring and promote fair election process.   

2. Your press-speaker has informed public about education and work experience of the candidates you have selected, while we are still unsure about the reasons why our candidate’s education and work experience was considered inadequate, particularly with regards to elections and relatively to the candidates you have selected.

3. Why have you selected Mr. Levan Tarkhnishvili as one of the candidates, while one of the main requests of most of the opposition was his resignation and in your speech before the parliament on July 20, 2009 you noted that new chairperson of CEC was to be selected on the basis of broad agreement among main political subjects?  

We ask you to share your opinions regarding the questions. We believe that elaborating on these issues will have a positive effect of the Georgian and the international communities’ perception of the upcoming elections. We thank you in advance for your attention and cooperation.

Tamar Karosanidze – Transparency International Georgia

Tamar Khidasheli – Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association

Arnold Stepanyan – Public Movement ‘Multinational Georgia’