The Central Election Commission (CEC) addressed an open letter to the Public Defender, local and international observer organizations, and organizations working on women’s rights issues.

“The matter concerned the facts of pressure exerted on representatives of the Election Administration (EA). One of the obvious examples is a targeted campaign involving slander, insults, and threats used against Zugdidi District Election Commission (DEC) and its Chairperson - Miranda Meskhi which was publicly actively disseminated both by different sources and on social networks. The CEC provided visual material to the above-mentioned organizations.

The mentioned campaign was started by a representative of the concrete electoral subject already on election night when a person in question without any grounds, accused Miranda Meskhi of interfering in activities of precinct election commissions (PECs). The pressure was exerted both by the people in the district commission and through a campaign on the social network. Manipulation, threat, and hate speech were used against the Chairperson of the district on October 7-8-9, followed by several statements made and then disseminated by the election administration. During this period, representatives of concrete electoral subjects paralyzed the work of the district election commission and damaged the inventory.

The facts of gender-based discrimination against Miranda Meskhi were also revealed.

For this reason, we addressed the Public Defender, local and international observer organizations, and organizations working on women’s rights issues to learn the information provided by us and to support to provide the public with accurate information about the electoral process”, - reads the statement of CEC.