Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has announced that observers from the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will not be invited to observe local elections in October.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Kobakhidze said it was ‘not standard practice’ to invite the OSCE/ODIHR to observe local elections.
‘There have been exceptions, including in our case in 2021, but that was due to the fact that those elections were somehow linked to the issue of parliamentary elections’, he said.
The OSCE has observed every local election in Georgia since 2006, except for in 2014.
‘The local self-government elections will be held in a healthy and proper manner’, Kobakhidze said.
‘Therefore, we believe that, in this case, it would be excessive to burden OSCE/ODIHR with our local elections’, he added.
Kobakhidze’s comments came after the British Embassy in Tbilisi called on the government to extend an invitation to the OSCE to observe the vote.
‘The hopes and aspirations of the Georgian people are for democracy and freedom, and we hope that UK-Georgia co-operation, as well as Georgia’s cooperation with European institutions, will further contribute to those goals’, they said.
The statement also defended UK funding of civil society groups in Georgia, including voter education activities and funding for local election observation groups.
‘The Georgian government itself previously supported this activity and we reject its current description as funding “propaganda and extremism”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Georgian legislation makes provision for citizen monitoring, which is an important part of professional and transparent scrutiny of elections’, they said.
The announcement came amidst widespread belief in Georgia that October’s elections would not be free or fair.
During last October’s parliamentary elections, local observers and media documented widespread irregularities that called into question the legitimacy of the result. This included widespread violations of voter secrecy. Local observers also said they had uncovered a scheme in which the ruling party was using the identities of Georgians living abroad to falsify votes in their favour.
As a result, there has been disagreement among the opposition over whether to participate in the local elections at all.
Several parties and groupings, including the Coalition for Change and the United National Movement have vowed to boycott the vote. Others, including Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia and Mamkuka Khazaradze’s Lelo have not ruled out taking part.
Additional reporting by Mikheil Gvadzabia.
OC Media
