Lado Bichashvili
Residents of the occupied territory, on the ABL with South Ossetia, can travel to the Georgian controlled territory and participate in the elections without any obstacles. Human Rights Center’s observers reported about it, who monitor ongoing election process in the border-line villages of Perevi, Jria, Tskhomareti, Chala and Speti in Sachkhere district.
After 2008 August armed conflict, it is first elections, when Georgian citizens residing in the occupied territories can cross so-called border and participate in the elections without obstacles. Polling station # 46 is open in Jria village and residents of the neighboring village Kardzmani from the occupied territory can go and vote there.
192 voters are registered in polling station # 46; 141 of them live in the occupied territory; others are residents of Jria village. 43 voters had already crossed de-facto border by 13:00 pm and participated in the election.
Sevarian Amiranashvili, resident of Kardzmani village: “I came to vote in the morning. It is the first elections when we did not face problems when crossing border. We used to secretly cross the border in the past.”
In addition to that, two Georgian citizens from occupied territories observe ongoing elections in the precinct # 46. They also crossed de-facto border without any problems.