Georgian Public Defender affirms reliance on OSCE/ODIHR assessment of 2024 parliamentary elections
Levan Ioseliani
Photo: Office of the Public Defender
Georgian Public Defender Levan Ioseliani on Friday affirmed his reliance on the OSCE/ODIHR assessment of the 2024 parliamentary elections, dismissing allegations made by local monitoring groups regarding electoral violations.
“Several people protested in front of my office today. Some of them are deliberately spreading false information, while others are probably misled. They accuse me of turning a blind eye to the alleged torture, ill-treatment, degrading or inhumane treatment of protesters by the police during the ongoing protests”, the Public Defender said.
“Regarding the election issues, I will clarify it once again: I cannot assess the issue of election fraud because I am not a monitoring organisation. The fact that I trust the findings of the OSCE/ODIHR and not the assessments of local monitoring organisations is my prerogative. I do not believe that 100,000 people were deprived of their ID cards. If it were true, at least half of them would have participated in the protests. I have seen no evidence to support this claim. I heard from the organisers of the rally that I have no right to say this, which is simply ridiculous. I recommend that you hold protests against the organisations that convinced you of this lie”, he continued.
He noted that his office had identified 110 potential criminal cases related to electoral violations, with legal actions initiated in each instance.
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