EU Ambassador Talks Election Monitoring Importance at ISFED’s Election Support Project Launch
On February 1, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), a local election monitoring organization, presented the project “Supporting Free and Fair Election Cycle in Georgia” supported by the European Union. The presentation was attended by members of the opposition parties, representatives of civil society, as well as the Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, Paweł Herczyński.
According to ISFED, the event provided an opportunity to share plans for the upcoming 2024 general elections. Highlights include a robust election observation mission, voter information campaigns, and initiatives to promote constructive dialogue between political parties and voters.
Speaking to journalists at the event, EU Ambassador Paweł Herczyński underlined the importance of election observation and said: “We are waiting for the Government of Georgia to invite long-term electoral observation of OSCE/ODIR and of course as European Union we are supporting also reputable, respectable civil society organizations that are specialized in education of voters…as we all know, free and fair elections is one of the nine steps identified by the European Commission and agreed by 27 member states that will be very important in view of moving forward on the path of Georgia’s EU integration”.
He also noted that he hoped that despite the focus on the 2024 elections, attention be on the implementation of the nine conditions and that the EU would begin accession negotiations with Georgia this year.
He was also asked for his opinion on the current changes in the Cabinet of Ministers, to which he replied that whatever the changes may be, “as European Union we are ready to work with the newly elected Prime Minister and newly appointed ministers in order to advance Georgia on its EU integration path.”
The Executive Director of ISFED, Nino Dolidze also spoke to the media, sharing the goals of the organization during the elections monitoring period: “The first thing is that the pre-election period should be held in such a way that administrative resources are not used, state agencies are not used in favor of only one party, the voter is not pressured, threatened or intimidated, and the voter is able to make his/her decision in a free environment… Secondly, it’s also important that if there are, let’s say, manipulations or violations in connection with these elections, the state authorities should respond in a timely and effective manner and third thing we think is also very important is the issue of independence and impartiality of the election administration [CEC]…”
The Chairwoman of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Nona Kurdovanidze, also expressed her organization’s interest in conducting long-term and election-day monitoring, saying that with the increased use of technology in the upcoming elections, even more attention should be paid to election observation.
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This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
