Nino Lomjaria, former head of Georgia’s largest election monitoring group, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), was appointed as the First Deputy Head of the State Audit Office (SAO) on November 4.

Lomjaria quit her position at ISFED in January 2016 after her four-year term in office expired. She continued to consult ISFED since.

In explaining her decision to take the office, Lomjaria said SAO is “one of the most transparent and progressive agencies.” 

UNM lawmaker, Irma Nadirashvili slammed Lomjaria’s decision as “very regrettable.”

 “Now it is clear, why Lomjaria was silent before and after the [October] elections and why she failed to see the facts of violence and ballot rigging,” Nadirashvili said.The post of the deputy head of SAO became vacant after Vano Zardiashvili quit the post to run in parliamentary elections on Georgian Dream`s proportional ticket.