Page 6 - GEORptSep18

2.0 Politics
2.1 Opposition UNM calls on Georgian election chief to
step down
Georgia’s opposition United National Movement (UNM) called on August 27 for the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Tamar Zhvania to step down.
Georgians are due to go to the polls to vote for a new president on October 28, but the UNM’s Levan Bezhashvili claimed at a press conference on August 27 that the government is “preparing for the total falsification of the elections”.
The party has released tapes of five secretly recorded phone conversations, which it claims show activists for the ruling Georgian Dream party have been appointed to district and precinct election commissions.
The recordings have not yet been authenticated, but the CEC issued a statement on August 27, stressing that it is an independent body, and expressing concern over the recorded conversations.
“The telephone communication was made at several DECs [District Election Commissions] by non-identified persons and the content of the phone calls appeared to be unacceptable and inappropriate with the EA [Election Administration] activities,” the statement said.
2.2 Georgians nonplussed by Merkel’s lack of commitment to Tbilisi’s Nato aspirations
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's v isit to Georgia left many Georgians disappointed by her perceived lack of commitment to the country's Nato’s aspirations and for reintegrating two Russia-backed breakaway territories back into the Georgian fold, Eurasianet has reported.
Georgians, eager for Western support in their ongoing struggle with Russia, were reportedly nonplussed by some of Merkel's comments.
“I don’t see Georgia becoming a Nato member any time soon,” the chancellor was cited as telling an audience of students at Tbilisi State University on August 24. “Given the situation with [breakaway] Abkhazia and South Ossetia, we can’t talk about the swift integration of Georgia into Nato,” she said. “At least this is Germany’s position and it will remain as such.”
“The occupation of Georgian territories should not be an obstacle to Nato membership,” former defence minister Davit Sikharulidze was quoted as telling local media. “When Germany became a Nato member, one third of its territory was occupied by the Soviet Union.”
During her two-day visit, Merkel also conspicuously shunned the term “occupation” to describe the current situation, in which thousands of Russian troops are deployed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and instead described the situation as “unfair.”
6 GEORGIA Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com