TBILISI, September 24 – One of Georgia’s oldest and most trusted legal watchdogs says it won’t monitor this year’s local elections, marking the first time in its 31-year history it has refused to do so.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) announced Wednesday it will not dispatch observers to monitor the October 4 municipal elections, when voters will pick mayors and local councils across Georgia. The group said the decision comes amid what it called the most difficult political and legal environment Georgia has faced since independence.
In a statement, GYLA pointed to what it described as democratic backsliding, new restrictive laws targeting NGOs and media, and mounting pressure on civil society. The group also criticized recent changes to election rules that it said weakened the legal framework for election observers.
“Under these conditions, it is practically impossible for us to form a full observation mission and carry out monitoring,” the group said. Instead, it pledged to continue monitoring Georgia’s broader human rights climate and to provide legal assessments to the public as events unfold.
Founded in 1994, GYLA has been one of Georgia’s leading election monitors for three decades, regularly fielding hundreds of observers across the country. Its withdrawal leaves a major gap in civil society oversight of the vote, which comes at a time of political tension and accusations of authoritarian, ‘Russian’ style governance.
