Irakli Kobakhidze says Georgian authorities do not intend to allow OSCE/ODIHR observers for municipal elections
Georgia won’t invite OSCE observers
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded to criticism from the British Embassy in Georgia over the party’s decision not to invite the OSCE/ODIHR to observe the municipal elections scheduled for October 2025.
Kobakhidze claimed that there is no established practice of inviting OSCE/ODIHR to monitor municipal elections — only parliamentary ones. He added that Georgian Dream would hold the local elections in a “healthy environment” even without any observers.
The British Embassy in Georgia has called on the Georgian authorities to invite an OSCE/ODIHR mission to observe the upcoming municipal elections and to take into account all recommendations outlined in the organisation’s final report on the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The embassy stressed that it strongly disagrees with the Georgian government’s assessment that funding voter education efforts, supporting domestic election monitoring groups, and participating in OSCE/ODIHR missions amounts to “funding propaganda and extremism.”
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded:
“In general, there is no practice of inviting OSCE/ODIHR to observe local elections. There are exceptions — we had one in 2021, but only because those local elections were politically tied to the parliamentary elections. In other countries as well, there are occasional exceptions, but they are just that — exceptions.
As a standard practice, OSCE/ODIHR missions are invited to observe parliamentary elections. Therefore, we believe that in this case, OSCE/ODIHR should not be burdened with our local elections. They will be held in a healthy environment.
You know that OSCE/ODIHR observed the parliamentary elections and issued a report, but nobody showed any interest in that report. And now, the very same people who completely ignored OSCE/ODIHR’s findings are asking us to invite them again,” Kobakhidze said.
The Prime Minister also stated that the government is open to improving relations with the United Kingdom, although, in his words, this is being hindered by what he called a “harmful practice of funding extremism” from London:
“As for Georgia–UK cooperation, of course, we are fully open to it, but it is very important that such cooperation is built on clear principles. In this regard, we must remember that there have been certain harmful practices in our country, including the financing of extremism.
Naturally, such facts hinder the development of healthy partnership relations. Recently, there have been attempts to fund several organisations — organisations directly connected to the radical opposition.”
