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Given the increased role of social media in election campaigns and the use of Facebook for discrediting electoral contestants and illegal campaigning in Georgia, ISFED is conducting a pilot Social Media Monitoring project for the 2018 Presidential Elections in Georgia.

ISFED responds to the statement made by the presidential candidate of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili claiming that on November 9-10 and 11, she and her children received death threats through voice and text messages.

ISFED released on 8 November a statement summarizing the post-election observation of complaints and adjudication process by the election administration. According to the findings, the standard of adjudication of electoral disputes has worsened.

On October 25, ISFED issued the 3rd interim report  of the pre-election monitoring, covering the final stage of the pre-election period between October 1 – 24.  Apart from attacks and pressure on civil society, the reporting period was marked with increased cases of abuse of administrative resource combined with intimidation.

The document mainly covers the period of September 9-30 but it also summarizes certain events that affected the electoral process beyond the reporting period.

Promo-LEX and several other members of the Civic Coalition call the urgent repeal of CEC Decision, complicating the election observers' accreditation and activity. 

In an open letter to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, dozens of German scientists and representatives of think tanks protest against the listing of EPDE as “undesirable organisation”.

The use of administrative resources and irregularities in electoral campaign financing persist, according to the second Promo-LEX report on monitoring the new local elections.

The listing of EPDE as „undesirable foreign organisation“ in Russia limits, in the first instance, the rights of Russian citizen election observers and isolates them from international election observation.

ISFED presented its final report of monitoring of the 2017 local self-government elections in Georgia. The report (attached) covers ISFED’s key findings and trends of the pre-election, Election Day and post-election periods

EPDE has become the target of orchestrated smear and defamation campaigns by the Russian media in the run-up to the Russian presidential election.

The German-Russian Exchange (DRA) declares solidarity with EPDE and IESC, and their striving to promote independent non-governmental international election observation, which can contribute to the legitimacy of fair elections.

“Golos” experts analysed information from long-term observers in the regions as well as information from the media and the crowdsourcing service "Map of Violations."

On 18 February 2018, the local elections in Belarus were over. Independent Belarusian media once again reported high turnout, while voters generally show little interest.