§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the conduct of the general election in Georgia and on the activities of the Revival Party. [95815]
§ Mr. Vaz[holding answer 28 October 1999]: Voting will take place in the Georgian parliamentary elections on 31 October. We have reports of some intimidation and obstruction of candidates and supporters on all sides during the campaign, as well as a single violent incident when a hand grenade was thrown into the garden of one of the candidates of the Socialist party, fortunately not resulting in any injuries. As well as observing the conduct of the election through the British Embassy in Tbilisi, the Government have committed £70,000 towards the OSCE monitoring mission for the elections, which will fund UK personnel in the management team and both long-term and short-term observers. We welcome the appointment of my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall, South (Mr. George) as Special Representative of the Chairman in Office of the OSCE: he will co-present the findings of the monitors after the elections. We intend to wait until the official OSCE report on the elections is published before commenting more generally on the conduct of the elections.