OSCE Launches Georgia Election Observation Mission

OSCE’s democracy and rights arm ODIHR opened on August 30 election observation mission for Georgia’s October 8 parliamentary polls, Civil.ge reports.

Currently the mission includes a core team of 12 experts from 9 countries based in Tbilisi, which will be joined by 26 long-term observers from September 5, who will be deployed across the country to monitor pre-election developments.

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has requested the OSCE participating states to send 350 short-term observers to monitor election day and the vote counting process.

The mission is led by French career diplomat Alexandre Keltchewsky; he was head of the OSCE Centre in Astana, Kazakhstan, and led OSCE’s election assessment mission for the parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan in late 2013.

OSCE/ODIHR’s long-term observation mission, which was launched slightly over five weeks before the parliamentary elections, will prepare one interim report on pre-election situation.