October 31: OSCE PA to Deploy 28 Short-Term Election Observers

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) announced on October 24 that it will deploy a team of 28 short-term election observers for Georgia’s October 31 parliamentary elections, led by Elona Gjebrea Hoxha, Albanian MP and Rapporteur of the OSCE PA’s Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment, and Pia Kauma, Finnish MP and OSCE PA Special Representative on Civil Society Engagement.

According to the announcement, on election day observers will take notice of the campaign environment, the legal framework, election administration, election day procedures, and media coverage. The OSCE PA delegation will deliver a post-election statement of preliminary findings and conclusions at a press conference in Tbilisi on November 1.

Underscoring that the March 8 agreement to reform the electoral system between ruling Georgian Dream and opposition parties “set an important background” for the upcoming general election, MP Kauma expressed hope that observers will “witness an election day that will proceed in a calm and orderly manner, paying testament to the democratic development of the country.”

The OSCE PA short-term observers will collaborate closely with the team of 27 long-term observers and the 13-member core team from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) who are already in Georgia, as well as with observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA), the announcement reads.

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