PACE Monitors Meet Opposition Leaders

Monitors from Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mátyás Eörsi and Kastriot Islami met with opposition leaders in Tbilisi on March 22.

Opposition politicians said after talks that they mostly focused on the election issues.

“They [co-rapporteurs] will certainly make statements and take concrete steps to assure the society that their votes will be confidential, their votes will be protected – the international community will choose just this way before the elections and a very serious monitoring of the election process will start,” Irakli Alasania, leader of Alliance for Georgia told reporters after talks.

Levan Gachechiladze, co-founder of public movement Defend Georgia, said after the meeting that “elections are already rigged today,” because “it is impossible to achieve a victory in this election environment.”

MP Nika Laliashvili of the Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM), a leading party in the parliamentary minority, also participated in the meeting. 

Also on March 22 the co-rapporteurs on Georgia from PACE’s monitoring committee met with the representatives of non-governmental organizations and media.

During the visit on March 21-24 Mátyás Eörsi and Kastriot Islami will also meet with President Saakashvili and other senior officials, including heads of Central Election Commission and National Communications Commission, as well as chairman of state commission on constitutional reform.

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