Georgia to hold local elections on June 15

Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–The 2014 local elections in Georgia will be held on June 15. This is decided in a decree by President Giorgi Margvelashvili signed April 10.

The decree has been sent to the government for approval and will come into force as soon as it is published on the website of the Central Election Commission.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Maia Panjikidze said Monday that she doesn’t think there will be many foreign observers during this election as there were during the presidential election in October 2013 and the parliamentary election one year earlier, because Georgia has increased its prestige and elections here are more trusted.

Georgia has sent invitation to international observer organizations, Panjikidze continued, but no-one has responded yet.

But the ministry already knows that OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) might not send observers this time, as it is not part of ODIHR’s competence to monitor local elections, although the organization did send observers for the local elections in 2010.

60 local and 65 international organizations and 152 media organizations observed the presidential election five months ago.

A year earlier, 64 international and 50 local organizations and representatives of 146 media outlets observed the October 2012 parliamentary election.