Georgia Decides Not To Send Its Observers For Presidential Election Runoff

Georgia decided not to send its observers to Ukraine for the presidential election runoff, reads a statement made by the press service to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

"Georgian observers will not be sent to monitor the second round of the election of the president of Ukraine because of some misunderstanding surrounding Georgian observers during the first round," said Manana Manjgaladze, Saakashvili's press secretary.

Apart from this, Georgia is calling on its citizens who monitor the presidential election in Ukraine under the aegis of international organisations to return back home.

Manjgaladze stressed, Georgia was trying to keep neutrality on account of respect to both runners in the election. She noted Saakashvili wished the Ukrainian people to make a successful choice.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Kyivskyi district prosecutors' office of Donetsk filed a criminal case on January 25 on the suspicion that Georgian election observers had used forged documents identifying them as journalists during the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election in Donetsk on January 17.

Levan Tarhnishvili, acting head of Georgia's central election commission and the head of the Georgian delegation of election observers, confirmed that a delegation of 400 Georgian citizens with documents identifying them as freelance correspondents of Ukrainian media stayed in Donetsk.

The Central Electoral Commission refused on January 11 to register these observers from Georgia to monitor the presidential election.

The Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeals later ruled unlawful the commission's act of refusing registration to the Georgian observers.

Source:un.ua/