Irakli Kobakhidze claimed, during the press briefing on December 3, that OSCE/ODIHR assessed the October 26 parliamentary elections as “competitive” and “legitimate” and that an “additional confirmation of this was the letter that the Minister of Foreign Affairs received” by the French Senator, Pascal Allizard, who signs it as the Special Coordinator and Leader of the short-term observer mission of the OSCE to Georgia’s parliamentary elections. The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Foreign Minister of Georgia Maka Botchorishvili, was published by the Foreign Ministry on the same day and is widely circulated by the pro-governmental media as proof of the international endorsement of the elections, whose validity and results are being challenged by the opposition and watchdogs.
Kobakhidze said: “The OSCE/ODIHR assessed these elections as competitive, a conclusion was drawn accordingly, it is a preliminary report, and as you know, the final report does not differ from the preliminary one.” He claimed that “this is the main reason why the OSCE/ODIHR is being attacked so fiercely both by representatives of the radical opposition and by their foreign patrons.” He also stressed that the letter did not mention the issue of the transparency of the ballot paper, which the local observers said compromised the vote secrecy.
Earlier, the observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued a sharply critical report, which raises “concerns about the correctness of the election results, namely whether the election results truly reflect the will of the voters.”
Pascal Allizard’s Letter
Allizard wrote in his letter dated December 1 that Georgia’s parliamentary elections had offered citizens a “wide choice” and been “well administered,” with candidates able to campaign “freely.” It mentions among concerns “issues related to voter pressure and uneven playing field due to financial imbalances, the underrepresentation of women on party lists and other challenges.” It also lists a matter of concern “the recently adopted legislation and its impact on fundamental freedoms and Georgia’s civil society.”
He concludes “I trust that the Georgian Government and Parliament will follow up with due attention to the findings and recommendations, thereby lending a substantive contribution in the advancement of the national reform agenda and increasing public confidence.”
Mr. Allizard’s letter is written on the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly letterhead. OSCE/ODIHR observation mission for the October 26 Parliamentary Elections was headed by Mr. Eoghan Murphy. Civil.ge approached OSCE/ODIHR, which has not yet published its final report, to inquire whether Mr. Allizard’s letter was expressing the joint opinion of OSCE institutions, including that of ODIHR, but received no response at the time of publication. We would amend this news if and when the response is received.
Change of tack?
The letter seems to be at odds with Allizard’s interview at the respected Radio France Internationale (RFI) on October 30, on his return from the observation mission. In this interview, Allizard stated clearly “these elections, unfortunately, were neither free, nor democratic.” He went on to list the cases of voter intimidation and ballot stuffing, that he and his team observed on October 26.
Allizard told the interviewing journalist that the “election was too imbalanced” and was “not matching the level expected from the country that desires to join the European Union.” Vice-president of the Commission of the Foreign Affairs and Defense of the French Senate, Allizard did not exclude the “Russian interference” took place.
Civil.ge contacted Mr Allizard, asking to clarify the apparent change of tack. We quote below his response in full, translated from French:
“Our OSCE ODIHR mission is to observe an electoral process and give an opinion on it, not to comment on the political outcome as other partisan organizations may do. In our report, we have expressed some positive elements and several negative ones. No more and no less. Some see and want to see only the negative, others stick to the positive. I have no other comment to make except to hope that Georgia will evolve and join the EU when the time comes. As I said at the end of the press conference in Tbilisi the day after the election, I think it’s necessary to reach out to them [Georgians] and help them to do so.”
Asked whether he was sticking to his evaluation given to RFI that the elections were “neither free nor democratic,” Allizard responded “I wish to make no further comment or elaborate on this matter.”
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