Record number of OSCE special monitors observe Georgia’s elections
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The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has sent a record number of special monitors to observe Georgia’s October Parliamentary Elections.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched its monitoring mission in Georgia today.
More than two dozen ODIHR monitors from several countries will spend the next month observing the pre-election period in Georgia, as well as the voting process itself on Election Day (October 8, 2016).
This morning Georgia’s Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze met the ODIHR representatives in capital Tbilisi.
"A record number of observers will monitor this year’s elections. The mission was invited by the Georgian Government,” Janelidze said.
The OSCE observer mission consisted of 26 monitors from 15 countries. Janelidze promised the Government would do its best to support the observers and help them in their work.
"Our aim is for the pre-election period and the elections to be held as transparently as possible,” Janelidze said.
Georgia and the OSCE have cooperated for almost two decades in this direction. The first time OSCE observers monitored elections in Georgia was in 1999.
Alongside ODIHR monitors, Georgia also invited observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, European Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Guam, African Union and other international organisations.
Official monitoring missions of 80 countries were also invited.
There are 39 days until the Parliamentary Elections in Georgia.
There are 40 days left before Georgian citizens can vote for who they want to run the country. The Central Election Commission upgraded its lists of election subjects who have addressed the Commission with the request to be allowed to participate in the elections.
"These Parliamentary Elections will be a test of our democracy and we are all dedicated to ensuring these elections are held in a way that meets the highest standards,” says Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvrikashvili.
Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GDDG), has officially started campaigning for the upcoming Parliamentary Elections, set for October 8, 2016. The campaign began in Imereti region of the country's west.
Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor the upcoming 2016 Parliamentary Eections in Georgia in October. This was announced when OSCE top official, Secretary General Lamberto Zannier met Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi this afternoon.
Knut Fleckenstein, Vice President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats within the EP is in Tbilisi to meet high officials from Georgia’s ruling party Georgian Dream, and to assess the country’s pre-election environment.
Georgia’s former Prime Minister and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party Bidzina Ivanishvili has today started his televised meetings with representatives of regional media to answer journalists’ questions during the pre-election campaign ahead of the Parliamentary Elections on October 8.
Conflict management and continental security were the focus of discussions between Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and his European counterparts at an informal ministerial of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Germany on Thursday.
25 parties and 6 blocs compete in October elections
Thirty-one election subjects including 25 political parties and six election blocs will compete in the Parliamentary Elections in Georgia on October 8.
“UNM plans to disrupt pre-election environment”
A member of the current ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party says opposition United National Movement (UNM) is planning to disrupt the peaceful pre-election environment by staging protests and provoking other parties.
One of the country’s leading NGOs says the current pre-election period leading up to next month's Parliamentary Elections is more peaceful and less violent than the 2012 pre-election period.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s former Prime Minister and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) party, has ranked the political parties competing in next month’s Parliamentary Elections.
Last night Kvirikashvili commented on the leak of a secretly taped conversation in which Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili and members of opposition United National Movement (UNM) allegedly discussed ways to overthrow the authorities in the days following next Saturday’s election.