Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of potential irregularities in the recent elections in Georgia.

I made clear in a statement on 27 October my support for the findings of the preliminary report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights election monitoring mission. I also outlined the need for irregularities to be investigated thoroughly and independently. The Georgian authorities must reverse their declining commitment to democratic values and we will work with our international partners to encourage Georgia to return to a Euro-Atlantic path.