Georgian Parliament official: efforts to alter OSCE/ODIHR election report undermine trust in future election monitoring

Attempts to rewrite the OSCE/ODIHR election assessment are completely unacceptable and undermine our trust that the organisation will objectively observe elections in the future, said on Sunday Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Samkharadze recalled the visit of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation to Georgia in March 2026, led by the Assembly’s President, and noted that the delegation made several noteworthy statements regarding developments in the country.

“They condemned attacks on state institutions, something no other organisation had done before. They stated that refusing to take seats in parliament was a step against democracy. They also said that violence was unacceptable, whether committed by the police or by so-called peaceful protesters”, the Chair said.

“Following those statements, certain groups sought to reverse the positive direction the process had taken in order to benefit the so-called opposition. That is precisely what Joe Wilson’s resolution was intended to achieve”, he continued.

The Committee Chair further recalled his meeting with the head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Porto in 2025.

“They told me they were ready to come if we invited them. This was in July 2025. As you remember, we later invited the mission, but they claimed they did not have enough time to prepare for the visit. However, I must say this is absurd and untrue”, he noted.

“Whenever snap elections are called in any country, they are held within 45 days of being announced. If OSCE/ODIHR is capable of observing snap elections, why was it unable to observe local elections? Why couldn’t they prepare when we sent the invitation more than 45 days in advance? I'll tell you why. At that time, the opposition demanded that they not come and monitor the elections because the opposition had decided to boycott them", Samkharadze concluded.