The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said it would not be able to send an observation mission to the local elections in Georgia scheduled for October 4. The organization explained that the invitation from the government came too late — less than a month before voting day. This leaves no time to prepare and conduct full-fledged monitoring in accordance with the ODIHR methodology.

The director of the bureau, Maria Telalyan, emphasized that transparent observation requires access to all key stages of the electoral process. She recalled that Georgia had previously invited ODIHR missions in advance, which allowed for full-fledged observation, including in 2006, 2010, 2017, and 2021.

Against this background, the opposition accused the authorities of trying to imitate transparency. Anna Tsitlidze, a representative of the United National Movement, called the OSCE invitation “another lie and manipulation.” According to her, the ruling Georgian Dream party initially stated that it was not going to invite international observers, and the appeal to the ODIHR at a late stage only confirms the authorities’ attempts to “create a farce around this Russian special operation.”

“In fact, OSCE/ODIHR election observation is a very big problem for the Georgian Dream, given that elections are not being held in this country, but a Russian special operation is being carried out with bribery, intimidation, confiscation of identity cards, and so on,” Tsitlidze said.

The authorities, for their part, claim that the invitation was sent to ensure the transparency of the elections. However, the final decision of the ODIHR shows that there will be no international monitoring in October.