There were serious violations of voting procedure during the May 30 local elections in Georgia, international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday.
"Systemic irregularities were observed on election day in some regions, including several cases of ballot box stuffing and procedural violations during the vote count," a statement published on the organization's website said.
"The observers also noted deficiencies in the legal framework and its implementation, and characterized the campaign environment as an uneven playing field favoring contestants from the incumbent party," the document said.
However, OSCE's observers praised the Georgian authorities for "efforts to pro-actively address problems, including improving the quality of the voter lists."
Georgian authorities said earlier on Monday that international monitors had not reported any serious violations during the polls.
Preliminary results from exit polls conducted in Tbilisi by U.S. pollster Edison Research and Germany's GFK both put the ruling party ahead by a large margin and gave a similar lead in the Georgian capital's first direct mayoral elections to the incumbent, Gigi Ugulava.
The nationwide voting was seen as a test for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the ruling party as it was the first time voters had been to the polls since the August 2008 war with Russia.
MOSCOW, May 31 (RIA Novosti)
