OSCE Deploys Election Observer Mission

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has deployed an election observation mission for the May 21 parliamentary elections in Georgia.

Boris Frlec, who was Slovenia’s foreign minister in late 90s, is the head of the mission, which consists of 14 core staff based in Tbilisi and 28 long-term observers who will arrive in Georgia next week. Frlec was head of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission in Armenia during the parliamentary elections last May.

The ODIHR has requested 350 short-term observers from OSCE participating States, to be deployed immediately prior to the elections.

The mission is expected to make two interim reports about the electoral process before the May 21 and preliminary post-election report is expected on May 22.

“We did not come in this country with pre-conceived ideas or hidden agenda,” Ambassador Frlec said on April 10. “Our role is to observe and report and not to interfere.”