Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. А. Gasimova / The presidential election in Georgia meets democracy standards, a leading American expert Svante Cornel said.
"International experts, who observed the presidential election in Georgia on 5 January noted that the election met demands of democracy," the director in the Research Institute in the Middle Asia-Caucasus and professor of the Jones Hopkins University, Cornel stated by the telephone from Stokgolm.
The presidential election in Georgia was held completely in democratic conditions. Although there were revealed some facts of violation. The head of the PACE delegation Matias Yorsh stated to Trend agency that the election in Georgia met all international standards and created condition to Georgian population to hold elections democratically.
The director of the program of Russia and CIS German Council on Foreign Policy Alexander Rar considers that the presidential elections in Georgia were held in democratic conditions.
Georgian opposition lost the election. "Opposition could not demonstrate unity among opposition parties to population," the expert said.
As for the West, the expert said, West cannot render assistance to opposition as it supports Saakashvili.
According to the data by the Central Election Commission of Georgia as of 7 January, the candidate for the presidency in Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, still tops the results of the early elections, collecting 51.03% of the votes. The candidate from the combined opposition, Levan Gachechiladze, who collected 25.72% of the votes, states that the results are being falsified by the Central Election Commission and they will hold demonstrations to protest against it.
Mikhail Saakashvili was forced to fix early presidential elections in Georgia for 5 January 2008 after the demonstrations of the opposition at the beginning of November.