Georgian Parliament Speaker questions OSCE/ODIHR mission, claims opposition feared favourable findings

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday criticised the OSCE/ODIHR for declining to send an election observation mission for upcoming local elections scheduled for October 4, claiming that the decision was intended to prevent a positive conclusion that would leave the opposition without complaints.

In his remarks, Papuashvili argued that if international observers had monitored election day, they would have found no irregularities, depriving the opposition of grounds to challenge the results.

“Let me remind you, until the end of September last year, the opposition didn’t raise any issues or have any particular complaints regarding the pre-election environment. Their complaints started a few days after the elections - they began that very evening, but they couldn’t come up with a reason and invented excuses a few days later. They talked about leaks, then about double-scanning of IDs, then about 300,000 celestial Georgians appearing, and so on”, Papuashvili said.

The Speaker added that the opposition’s pre-election complaints were minimal, and their post-election grievances were largely fabricated.

“All their complaints were directed at election day itself. So, if they had observed election day, what would have been the problem? The problem was that they would have observed, found no reason, including regarding the mythical leaks, technical measures would have been taken for all issues, the opposition would have had nothing to say, there would have been a positive conclusion, and that’s exactly what they prevented - a positive conclusion”, he noted.

Papuashvili further noted that election observation missions, such as OSCE/ODIHR, were essential to validate the process and argued that withdrawing the mission ensured that a neutral, positive assessment could not be issued, thereby leaving room for opposition narratives of election irregularities.

“That’s why they pulled out the OSCE/ODIHR - it would have been the same again. There would have been a conclusion saying the elections were held, and they would have had to admit again that it’s just a piece of paper - remember, they started saying the OSCE/ODIHR was bought, that there were influences, and so forth”, Papuashvili concluded.

The Georgian Government formally invited ODIHR to observe the October 4 elections on September 6, while Prague extended its invitation for the Czech vote on September 2. However, on September 9 it became known that ODIHR had declined to send a mission to Georgia, citing lack of time.

The decision not to send observers to Georgia’s elections has raised questions, particularly since ODIHR has previously deployed missions on shorter notice.