Georgian PM meets with observers a day before municipal elections

Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili has hosted representatives of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) monitoring mission at the Government Administration today.

The NDI mission will observe the municipal elections that will take place in Georgia tomorrow, October 21.

The pre-election environment, the level of media freedom in the country and Georgia’s constitutional reforms were the main topics of discussion at today’s meeting.

Kvirikashvili stressed that the pre-election environment has been "unprecedentedly calm” and all electoral subjects have been able to run a peaceful campaign.

He added that, thanks to the democratic reforms undertaken in Georgia, holding free and fair elections has become a standard in the country. He believes that tomorrow’s elections will prove this once again.

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The meeting also touched upon the prevention of using administrative resources during campaigning. Kvirikashvili said that the practice of suing administrative resources has been left in the past and if individual cases still happen, they are properly reacted to.

The parties also talked about recent constitutional reforms in Georgia, which, in Kvirikashvili’s words, must strengthen democracy and make sure the next parliament is more pluralistic with a greater number of parties.

NDI mission representatives stressed that the organisation always sends a mission to monitor elections in Georgia, which means that Georgia is considered as one of the important countries NDI is cooperating with.