Solana Hails ‘Peaceful Conduct’ of Polls

Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said he was “encouraged by the peaceful conduct of the parliamentary elections”

Solana met with Georgian Foreign Minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, in Brussels on May 23.

The EU foreign policy chief’s press office said in a statement that Solana had also welcomed “the efforts made to conduct these elections in line with OSCE and Council of Europe commitments, but also noted that many shortcomings remained to be addressed.”

These remarks are in line with the preliminary statement of the OSCE/ODIHR-led international election observation mission, which said, that “despite efforts to conduct elections in line with standards, a number of problems were identified which made their implementation uneven and incomplete.” 

Solana also noted that he hoped “the parliamentary majority would exercise its mandate with responsibility, notably by inviting all political forces to engage in dialogue in order to achieve consensus on electoral reform.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman-in-office of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Carl Bildt, who is the Swedish foreign minister, said on May 23: "It is reassuring to note that the election environment has generally improved since the presidential elections [in January].  At the same time, we look forward to continued efforts on behalf of the Georgian authorities to properly address the shortcomings that were identified in a number of areas, as well as to ensure an accurate and transparent process for complaints and appeals.”