President’s Office: Saakashvili, Clinton Discuss Post-Election Developments
President Saakashvili spoke on phone with U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to discuss post-election developments, the Georgian President’s administration said.
“In particular, pressure exerted on District Election Commissions and Central Election Commission” was also discussed, the President’s administration said in a press release on October 4.
It also said that the phone conversation was held upon the initiative of the U.S. Secretary of State.
Clinton also spoke on phone with Georgian Dream leader Bidzina Ivanishvili on October 4.
Despite the calls from the Georgian Dream leaders to stop rallies, activists and supporters of the coalition in various parts of the country continued gatherings outside several District Election Commissions on October 4; rallies were held in some of those single-mandate constituencies where majoritarian MP candidates from President Saakashvili’s United National Movement are leading according to official election results, disputed by the Georgian Dream. Rallies were held in parallel to the process of reviewing complaints by DECs.
Three Georgian election observer organizations have called on the election administrations to count votes in accordance to legislation and urged the political activists to refrain from rallies outside the election administration offices.
“We believe that, on the one hand, the election administration must ensure counting of votes in accordance with the Georgian legislation and respond adequately to violations, and, on the other hand, the political parties must call on their activists to refrain from gathering at the buildings of the election administration, since disputes related to the election results must only be resolved by legal means,” reads a joint statement by International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy; Georgian Young Lawyers Association and Transparency International Georgia.
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