Voters in breakaway South Ossetia will tomorrow cast their votes for the fourth time in five months to select a new leader. Photo shows voting in the first round of the second election March 25 2012. (RES.)
TBILISI, DFWatch – The de facto republic South Ossetia tomorrow holds the second round of its second presidential elections.
The first election was held in November 2011. The Kremlin favorite and an opposition leader got through to the second round, in which the
Commentator Zviad Koridze says political rhetoric that makes use of ethnic differences is destructive and can result in very serious civic destabilisation.
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgian non-governmental organizations call on Georgian politicians to stop making xenophobic statements and ask the media not to spread such comments.
“The authors of such statements probably try to play on ethnic and religious feelings
Keti Tsikhelashvili from Liberal Academy-Tbilisi says the government is responding to a demand from more than fifty local groups. (Photo: Mari Nikuradze.)
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia’s Foreign Ministry today invited international organizations to send a long-term observation mission ‘immediately’ ahead of the parliamentary elections in October.
Normally, long-term observers would arrive about six weeks before the election,
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia’s breakaway region South Ossetia makes Russian its second state language.
The region’s elected assembly adopted a constitutional law called “On State Language of the Republic of South Ossetia”, which obliges the de facto state’s bodies
A Bear, or Tupolev Tu-95, (right), the iconic Russian bomber and surveillance plane during the Cold War.
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia will no longer let Russia conduct observation flights over its territory, and has suspended its obligations under a post-Cold War treaty which provide countries with mutual openness in each other’s military activities.
TBILISI, DFWatch – The Christian Democrats propose a new law which will allow Saakashvili’s main opponent to participate in elections without being a Georgian citizen. His citizenship issue is still unclear.
The Georgian president revoked billionaire businessman
Nino Kalandadze, spokesperson for Georgia's foreign ministry, says it is categorically unacceptable of a German diplomat to say that Georgia should "admit its mistakes towards enemies and victims, as Nazi Germany did in its time". Dieter Boden denies having said it. (Official photo.)
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia has broken off relations with a distinguished German diplomat, alleging he compared the Saakashvili regime to Nazi Germany.
Dieter Boden, who negotiated a peace plan for how to solve the conflict with breakaway Abkhazia ten years ago, told
TBILISI, DFWatch – Yesterday, he was denied having his political rights restored, but today Georgia’s richest man vowed to regain his citizenship, form a political party and launch himself as candidate for Prime Minister within just over two weeks.