**OSCE PA President Cancels Visit to Georgia**
The President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), Pia Kauma, has cancelled her planned visit to Georgia. The visit was set for January 8.
Opposition parties and President Salome Zurabishvili had criticized the announcement, saying it would be used by the ruling Georgian Dream party to legitimize their government. They said that the visit would give a false sense of approval to a government that they see as illegitimate.
Pia Kauma said in a statement that she was postponing her visit until it could be more effective. She added that the OSCE PA is ready to listen to all voices and help implement election recommendations from the OSCE/ODIHR.
**Concerns Expressed by Western Leaders**
The Chair of the Helsinki Commission, Joe Wilson, had written a letter to Pia Kauma expressing his concerns about the planned visit. He said that the Georgian Dream party would try to use it as a way to legitimize their government, despite opposition from the people and most Western partners.
President Salome Zurabishvili also shared Joe Wilson’s letter on her social media account, saying that it reflected the concerns of all Georgia’s European and American partners who care about stability, democracy, and human rights in Georgia.
**Opposition Parties React**
Three opposition parties had written a joint letter to Pia Kauma, urging her to condition her visit on the government committing to new elections and releasing detained protesters. A fourth party, Gakharia for Georgia, also wrote separately to urge her to reconsider the visit.
The concerns of President Zurabishvili and Rep. Joe Wilson seemed to be validated by a statement from the Chair of the GD parliament’s Legal Affairs committee, who said that the OSCE/ODIHR visit would only serve to legitimize the government’s “tenuous grasp on power”.
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