New Rights allege violent intimidation

Oppositional New Rights representatives say one of their observers, Kakha Merabishvili, was beaten in a Samtskhe-Javakheti village because he wanted to write a complaint letter to the Central Election Commission. The claim is unconfirmed; other opposition campaigners say they are particularly worried about abuses in Samtskhe-Javakheti and other districts with heavy ethnic minority populations. (Samtskhe-Javakheti is majority ethnic Armenian.)

The New Rights also report that voters wishing to register today are being turned away from some Kutaisi and Tbilisi polling stations, after election officials say they ran out of the pink envelopes in which the ballots of same-day registered voters are sealed to prevent multiple voting.