On October 30 Congressman Mike Turner (R-OH), Head of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, issued the joint statement regarding the October 26 elections saying that pre-election period was marred by “reports of vote buying, voter intimidation, abuse of administrative resources, and questionable appointments to election oversight boards” and that the elections “move Georgia significantly further away from joining NATO and the European Union.”
The Congressmen regret that although the October 26 elections “presented Georgia an invaluable opportunity to prove to the international community, to NATO countries and the European Union that Georgia remains firmly committed to its Euro-Atlantic path” the Georgian government provided no such reassurance “through campaign rhetoric blaming the West for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, foreign agents’ legislation passed to root out civil society, and lack of accountability for violent attacks against political opposition figures.”
The Congressmen note that the elections “posed significant challenges to the democratic process.” They stress that “Widespread pressure on public sector employees to vote for the incumbent party and a refusal to investigate violent attacks on political opponents are authoritarian behaviors, and a drastic departure from the vibrant, multiparty emerging democracy that once defined Georgia.”
The joint statement reiterates that “the United States and all NATO countries stand with the Georgian people and their Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
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