Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support free, fair and peaceful elections in Georgia.

On 9 October, I [Minister Doughty] made clear to Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili that Georgia's parliamentary elections must be held in accordance with international democratic standards. We have allocated £500,000 to support independent election monitoring in Georgia. The funding will enable the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) election observation mission and Georgian civil society groups to effectively monitor 26 October's parliamentary elections.