By Muhammad Sohail
Given the importance of this year’s elections in Georgia for the country’s future foreign policy orientation, the Czech Republic sent an exceptionally large group of observers. In addition to the Czech mission, a number of international organizations and delegations came to observe the parliamentary elections held on October 26. In total, 529 observers from 42 OSCE participating states came to Georgia.
“Election observation is one of the most beneficial direct tools for supporting democracy, and the situation in Georgia in particular has now shown this. We sent an exceptionally large group of 22 Czech observers. In addition, the Czech Republic participates in all election observation missions and we are among the most successful countries in sending election observers,” said Minister Lipavský regarding the operation of the Czech mission in Georgia.
The objective of the OSCE election mission in Georgia was to assess whether the elections were conducted in accordance with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. The conclusions from the observation of the pre-election situation and the election day were published in the so-called preliminary statement of the OSCE , which was released on Sunday, October 27. The statement noted that the election day was procedurally well organized, but fundamentally marked by a tense environment and several incidents of physical conflicts. The statement drew attention to, among other things, extensive intimidation of voters, obstruction of the work of citizen observers, an unequal media environment, and large differences in financial resources for the election campaign.
