U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Disagrees With Kobakhidze’s Statements Regarding International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream Party, claimed that the US’ support for the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was shocking, while Kelly Degnan, the US Ambassador to Georgia, reiterated that the US has complete trust in ISFED. "It’s a highly respected and experienced election monitoring organization. ISFED participated in a working group on electoral reform led by Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili last summer, which created crucial, extremely valuable electoral reform legislation that was ultimately accepted by the Parliament," the Ambassador added.
Ambassador Degnan cited reports from the OSCE/ODIHR and other election observers that discovered irregularities in the fairness of the 2020 and 2021 elections, asserting that ISFED was not accountable for those infractions. The Ambassador stated, "It is evident that they did not play a role in the offences that caused the public to lose faith in the election results." Additionally, she referred to ISFED's mistake during the tabulation of the 2020 parallel vote, and she emphasised that as soon as the CSO became aware of the problem — which was ultimately determined to be a minor detail — ISFED promptly notified the public and published the information in its entirety.
In accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission, the ambassador also reemphasized the necessity of including ISFED and other CSOs with electoral knowledge in the working group on electoral reform.