Georgian CEC Begins Registration of Observers Ahead of Parliamentary Elections

• Friday, August 3, 12:23

Tbilisi. Today, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia begins registration of observers to monitor the course of the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 1 - BLACK SEA PRESS was told in the CEC.

                "Today, the CEC begins registration of observers. It is hard to say at this stage, how many observer organizations will be registered. We take into account the experience of previous elections. There were about 12 thousand local and over thousand international observers at the local government elections in 2010. We think, these numbers will be same this year," said Zurab Kharatishvili, the CEC Chairman.

Georgian organizations should submit their applications till August 5; international organizations - till September 21.

                According to Sergi Kapanadze, Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia, Georgian MFA sent invitation to the OSCE long-term observer mission seven months ahead of elections. Besides, it also officially requested about 50 international organizations to send their long-term monitoring missions to Georgia.

"We have received confirmation from many countries to monitor the elections, scheduled for October 1.  We are already waiting for the arrival of the OSCE long-term monitoring mission. Parliamentary Assembly delegations, as well as representatives from EU, the U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI), are also expected to monitor parliamentary elections in Georgia.  We also expect the U.S. Congressmen's delegation, said Kapanadze.  Earlier, Georgian Foreign Ministry publicized scanned versions of the letters, sent to the international organizations.  On April 6, on the assignment of the Georgian President, the MFA sent official letters to Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Janez Lenarcic; President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Jean-Claude Mignon; President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz; Secretary General of the Council of Europe,  Thorbjorn Jagland; Secretary General  of the NATO PA, David Hobbs; President of the OSCE PA, Petros Efthymiou.

The Foreign Ministry also appealed to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton with the request to finance by EU a media monitoring project, similar to that, implemented in 2010 during the local government elections.