New ISFED Director Elected

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), a key Georgian election watchdog, said on February 22 that Nino Dolidze has been appointed as Executive Director by the organization’s Board.

According to ISFED, over the last eight years Dolidze has worked at the International Republican Institute (IRI), U.S. founded non-profit, as the Head of the electoral program, as well as in the direction of multiparty democracy development and the political empowerment of women. The freshly-appointed Executive Director worked at ISFED from 2007 to 2011, and has participated in over 15 election observation missions.

Dolidze’s appointment comes following previous Executive Director Elene Nizharadze’s resignation on December 25, after the ISFED Board held her responsible for controversy over the revised results of Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) of October 31, 2020, Parliamentary Elections, which showed an increase in the vote share of the ruling Georgian Dream party from an initially counted 45.8% to 47.7%. The initial results were frequently cited by the opposition as proof of “rigged” elections.

The ISFED Board that studied the matter said Elene Nizharadze was responsible for the delayed communication of the problem with the public, while it found that a “human error” was behind the inaccurate initial results.

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