Georgia was and still remains a leader in Euro-Atlantic integration and a positive example of peaceful democratic transition, – Rasa Juknevičienė, Head of the delegation from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly said when assessing Georgia’s 28 October presidential election.

According to her, observers of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly monitored the elections for already the fifth time by the invitation of the Georgian government.

“NATO membership is a strategic goal in Georgia and Georgia recognizes the protection of democratic values that are the basis for our alliance.

Georgia was and still remains a leader in Euro-Atlantic integration and a positive example of a peaceful democratic transition. We, as friends of Georgia support and encourage this process.

During years we have expressed concern about the threats that emerge from the excess polarization, the lack of compromise and dialogue culture. We’ve underlined that the concentration of power and resources, without strong safeguards, can be a risk for democracy. Unfortunately, these elections show that these problems are not properly resolved.

Our report notes several serious examples, including improper use of administrative resources, conducting campaigns by state officials and unbalanced funding, using false observers and so-called technical candidates, this is also a distortion of democracy”, – Rasa Juknevičienė said.

According to her, during the pre-election campaign, the negative process was observed, namely, verbal attacks against the NGOs.

“I would like to express our concern toward the fact that Georgian citizens from the occupied territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia were unable to participate in the elections” – she added.

Head of the delegation from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly talked about the second round and called on the Georgian authorities to solve the problems reflected in their report immediately.

The International Observers of the OSCE, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO and the European Parliament presented a preliminary report on the elections of October 28 at Radisson Hotel.