The News in Brief
Thursday, September 1
CEC releases statement over sequence number of election subjects
The Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC) has addresses political unions which have been granted (by the CEC decree ¹60/2016) the right to participate in the Parliamentary Elections using the same sequence number assigned to them during the Extraordinary Municipal Elections / Municipal By-elections, according to a statement published on the CEC webpage.
The agitation materials of the election subjects, as well as the free and paid advertisements aired by the national or/and local broadcasters for the parliamentary elections should not include the election subjects’ sequence number, which they are entitled to use according to the same decree, only after casting lots for all relevant election subjects and adopting the appropriate ordinance by the CEC.
Social media and other media outlets have reported a possible violation of the rule by the election bloc “Davit Tarkhan-Mouravi, Irma Inashvili –Alliance of Patriots of Georgia, United Opposition” and “Paata Burchuladze – State for People”.
Accordingly, the CEC calls upon all election subjects to respect the principle of equality and consider that, even though the political unions/blocs have not yet officially submitted their applications to the election administration, they, as registered election subjects, are still obliged to obey legislative requirements and rules defined by the legislative acts while carrying out their pre-election campaigns. In the event of similar incidents, the CEC will consider them to have violated the pre-election agitation rules. (IPN)
OSCE Launches Georgia Election Observation Mission
OSCE’s democracy and rights arm ODIHR opened on August 30 election observation mission for Georgia’s October 8 parliamentary polls.
Currently the mission includes a core team of 12 experts from 9 countries based in Tbilisi, which will be joined by 26 long-term observers from September 5, who will be deployed across the country to monitor pre-election developments.
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has requested the OSCE participating states to send 350 short-term observers to monitor election day and the vote counting process.
The mission is led by French career diplomat Alexandre Keltchewsky; he was head of the OSCE Centre in Astana, Kazakhstan, and led the OSCE’s election assessment mission for the parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan in late 2013.
The OSCE/ODIHR’s long-term observation mission, which was launched over five weeks before the parliamentary elections, will prepare one interim report on the pre-election situation.
The OSCE/ODIHR’s long-term observation mission ahead of the 2012 parliamentary elections, which was launched almost six weeks before the election day, released two interim reports.
“Our role is to observe and provide factual reporting on the findings,” said head of the election observation mission Alexandre Keltchewsky at a news conference in Tbilisi on August 30.
“Our role is not to interfere in the process – we are not at all interested in the election result, we are interested in how the elections are conducted,” he added.
The mission will assess the elections for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international standards and obligations for democratic elections, as well as with domestic legislation. Observers will follow the candidate registration process, campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant state bodies, implementation of the legal framework and the resolution of election disputes. The mission will also monitor the media coverage of the campaign.
A statement of preliminary findings will be issued on the day after the election and a final report on the observation of the entire election process will be published about two months after the completion of the election process. (Civil.ge)
Georgia assessed as 3rd safest country in the world
Georgia has been enlisted in the top three of the list of the world’s safest countries.
Numbeo.com has surveyed 118 countries. As a result, the first three are the following countries: South Korea, Singapore and Georgia.
The most unsafe countries were Venezuela, Papua New Guinea and Honduras. (IPN)
Georgia and Germany intensify police cooperation
Georgian and German police forces are forging closer ties to better fight crime and enhance the already strong cooperation between the agencies of the two nations.
Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Mgebrishvili is currently on his second official visit to Germany to discuss and promote closer bilateral bonds between the police.
While in Germany Mgebrishvili was scheduled to meet the Interior Ministers of three federal German lands including Saxony, Hessen and Baden-Wurttemberg.
Mgebrishvili started his German visit in Saxony where he met the region’s Interior Minister Markus Ulbig. German media reported the two sides agreed on a range of issue including deepening bilateral cooperation in:
• Fighting crime;
• Training law enforcers; and
• Readmission of Georgian citizens whose requests on asylum were turned down.
Following the meeting Ulbig said German officials knew "very well” that no one was discriminated in Georgia based on their political views or other reasons, which meant no Georgian citizen should seek asylum in Germany and commit a crime while their request is pending.
German media also reported Mgebrishvili and Ulbig agreed on closer security cooperation too.
"Despite that we already have good cooperation with Georgia’s law enforcement agencies, it is very important that we further intensify collaboration between the police of the two countries,” said the German official.
This is Mgebrishvili’s second visit to Germany since he was appointed as Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs a year ago. (Agenda.ge)
The Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC) has addresses political unions which have been granted (by the CEC decree ¹60/2016) the right to participate in the Parliamentary Elections using the same sequence number assigned to them during the Extraordinary Municipal Elections / Municipal By-elections, according to a statement published on the CEC webpage.
The agitation materials of the election subjects, as well as the free and paid advertisements aired by the national or/and local broadcasters for the parliamentary elections should not include the election subjects’ sequence number, which they are entitled to use according to the same decree, only after casting lots for all relevant election subjects and adopting the appropriate ordinance by the CEC.
Social media and other media outlets have reported a possible violation of the rule by the election bloc “Davit Tarkhan-Mouravi, Irma Inashvili –Alliance of Patriots of Georgia, United Opposition” and “Paata Burchuladze – State for People”.
Accordingly, the CEC calls upon all election subjects to respect the principle of equality and consider that, even though the political unions/blocs have not yet officially submitted their applications to the election administration, they, as registered election subjects, are still obliged to obey legislative requirements and rules defined by the legislative acts while carrying out their pre-election campaigns. In the event of similar incidents, the CEC will consider them to have violated the pre-election agitation rules. (IPN)
OSCE Launches Georgia Election Observation Mission
OSCE’s democracy and rights arm ODIHR opened on August 30 election observation mission for Georgia’s October 8 parliamentary polls.
Currently the mission includes a core team of 12 experts from 9 countries based in Tbilisi, which will be joined by 26 long-term observers from September 5, who will be deployed across the country to monitor pre-election developments.
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has requested the OSCE participating states to send 350 short-term observers to monitor election day and the vote counting process.
The mission is led by French career diplomat Alexandre Keltchewsky; he was head of the OSCE Centre in Astana, Kazakhstan, and led the OSCE’s election assessment mission for the parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan in late 2013.
The OSCE/ODIHR’s long-term observation mission, which was launched over five weeks before the parliamentary elections, will prepare one interim report on the pre-election situation.
The OSCE/ODIHR’s long-term observation mission ahead of the 2012 parliamentary elections, which was launched almost six weeks before the election day, released two interim reports.
“Our role is to observe and provide factual reporting on the findings,” said head of the election observation mission Alexandre Keltchewsky at a news conference in Tbilisi on August 30.
“Our role is not to interfere in the process – we are not at all interested in the election result, we are interested in how the elections are conducted,” he added.
The mission will assess the elections for compliance with OSCE commitments and other international standards and obligations for democratic elections, as well as with domestic legislation. Observers will follow the candidate registration process, campaign activities, the work of the election administration and relevant state bodies, implementation of the legal framework and the resolution of election disputes. The mission will also monitor the media coverage of the campaign.
A statement of preliminary findings will be issued on the day after the election and a final report on the observation of the entire election process will be published about two months after the completion of the election process. (Civil.ge)
Georgia assessed as 3rd safest country in the world
Georgia has been enlisted in the top three of the list of the world’s safest countries.
Numbeo.com has surveyed 118 countries. As a result, the first three are the following countries: South Korea, Singapore and Georgia.
The most unsafe countries were Venezuela, Papua New Guinea and Honduras. (IPN)
Georgia and Germany intensify police cooperation
Georgian and German police forces are forging closer ties to better fight crime and enhance the already strong cooperation between the agencies of the two nations.
Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Mgebrishvili is currently on his second official visit to Germany to discuss and promote closer bilateral bonds between the police.
While in Germany Mgebrishvili was scheduled to meet the Interior Ministers of three federal German lands including Saxony, Hessen and Baden-Wurttemberg.
Mgebrishvili started his German visit in Saxony where he met the region’s Interior Minister Markus Ulbig. German media reported the two sides agreed on a range of issue including deepening bilateral cooperation in:
• Fighting crime;
• Training law enforcers; and
• Readmission of Georgian citizens whose requests on asylum were turned down.
Following the meeting Ulbig said German officials knew "very well” that no one was discriminated in Georgia based on their political views or other reasons, which meant no Georgian citizen should seek asylum in Germany and commit a crime while their request is pending.
German media also reported Mgebrishvili and Ulbig agreed on closer security cooperation too.
"Despite that we already have good cooperation with Georgia’s law enforcement agencies, it is very important that we further intensify collaboration between the police of the two countries,” said the German official.
This is Mgebrishvili’s second visit to Germany since he was appointed as Georgia’s Minister of Internal Affairs a year ago. (Agenda.ge)