The interim report for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Election ObservationMission for 26 October parliamentary election has been published.
The interim report covers issues such as legal framework and electoral system, election administration, electiontechnologies, rights and registration of voters and candidates, electoral environment and finance, media landscape, election dispute resolution, election monitoring, etc.
It is a good thing that OSCE/ODIHR has assessed the pre-election climate in Georgia. The public can see that the preelection campaign takes place in a calm, competitive, and free environment. There are no major incidents or significant violations. The violations are isolated incidents.
The fact that our authorities have been steadfast in their resolve and implemented reforms, the pre-election is free of violence, vote-buying, illegal use administrative resources, or other systemic manipulations.
The OSCE/ODIHR emphasizes that the Central Election Commission is managing the process with full compliance to all deadlines, and conducting large-scale campaigns of information. ODIHR applauds the CEC’s efforts to inform voters, simplify the use of new technology, and ensure their effective usage. We agree with the positive assessment of the CEC’s professionalism, and institutional capabilities.
It is also encouraging to see that the interim report reflects positive developments in the legal and practical areas of voter lists, electoral dispute resolution and rights and registration for voters and candidates.
The interim report also notes the Georgian media landscape is diverse, but polarized. As you are well-aware, opposition-affiliated channels are deliberately blocking the Georgian Dream‘s campaign video ads without any legal justification, thereby violating Georgian law and creating a discriminatory and unequal media environment during the pre-election period. We have provided detailed information about this fact, which unfortunately was not included in the interim reports. We hope that the final report will include and assess this information properly.
We are pleased that the report mentions the death of Ermile Gigiaze, a member of the Georgian Dream, following a verbal assault by an activist from the United National Movement in Tskaltubo. It is crucial that the international community sees the true face of opposition, which hides under a mask of civility.
We also appreciate that the report reflects that neither the opposition nor so-called nongovernmental local observers attend the meetings of Interagency Task Force for Free and Fair Elections.
We also informed the ODIHR that the majority of opposition groups have not signed the Code of Ethics created by the Central Election Commission. We hope that the next report will reflect this.
We are pleased that the EOM has raised concerns about the political goals of local observers organizations. We provided evidence to the ODIHR EOM regarding party affiliations and the political goals of certain observers organisations. We hope that the next report will include these details.
We express our gratitude to all agencies, including the Central Election Commission, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Justice, who are responsible for ensuring a peaceful, professional and free conduct of the election.
We also thank the OSCE/ODIHR representative for their work to this point and continue to keep in close contact with them to ensure the assessments made in the final report is based on facts, and not unfounded accusations by interested parties.
We would also like to mention that these elections take place in the context of unprecedented external interference. The opposition’s campaign for the pre-election is practically being directed from outside. This is a complete anomaly and unacceptable. We have provided concrete facts and evidence to the ODIHR EOM, and we hope that the final report will reflect these violations. The public is much better informed and prepared today, so that the scenarios used during the 2020 elections won’t be repeated.
We want to emphasize again that the primary objective of the authorities is that elections in Georgia be conducted in accordance with democratic international standards. We urge all participants, observers and other interested parties to refrain from discrediting the election process artificially, to work with the responsible agencies to maintain order, and to promote a transparent and fair conduct of the elections according to international standards.
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