Maia Panjikidze

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maia Panjikidze. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–OSCE’s long term observers for the upcoming presidential election will arrive in Georgia on September 16.

Maia Panjikidze, Foreign Affairs Minister, on Friday told journalists that Georgia has received a positive response from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the election.

Panjikidze said she sent invitation letters to international observers in July, when a date was set for the election.

“First of all, those are OSCE and its ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights), NATO Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, the European Parliament, GUAM’s Parliamentary Assembly, National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI) and others, and we have received positive answers from PACE, OSCE and NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly,” she said.

Some observers will arrive early, while others will be deployed short term around election time.

The minister said it is important to have many observers in order to conduct an election that lives up to European standards, one that will be transparent and competitive.

OSCE will send the same amount of observers as in the parliamentary election last year. This will be 24 long term and more than 300 short term observers. They will arrive on September 16 and within three days consultations will be held with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Central Election Commission.

September 19 the OSCE observer mission will hold a press conference.