OSCE Mission to Georgia

Democratization and elections

The OSCE Mission to Georgia works to strengthen the capacity of Georgian society and its institutions to move the democratization process forward, boosting their ability to conduct free and fair elections and establish democracy at all levels.

Elections

The Mission supports the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia in its efforts to increase transparency, accountability and professionalism, and since 2006, has employed several experts to build up the capacity of the election administration. The experts have supported the CEC's strategic planning, furthered human resources management, improved internal communication and strengthened its PR department.

The Mission continues to foster the capacity of local non-governmental organizations to monitor election-related activities. In 2006 a Mission-organized project with the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy resulted in the first significant overhaul of the voter list in nearly three years. The findings and recommendations triggered a broad discussion among main stakeholders over improvement of the voter lists, and several new projects were designed.

Since 2006, the Mission has supported the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in its efforts to bring Georgia's Election Code into greater compliance with international standards and improve its consistency. In 2007, it held a series of working sessions jointly with the Council of Europe and under the leadership of the Deputy Speaker of the Georgian Parliament with all relevant election stakeholders about reform of the election code.

These efforts are complemented by the Mission's Working Groups, which aim at information sharing and co-operation among election stakeholders. The Mission chairs the Technical Working Group which discusses election assistance and which is attended by international and domestic organisations as well as the CEC. The Mission co-chairs the Ambassadorial Working Group, which brings together OSCE Ambassadors to discuss election issues from a political angle.

Parliamentary reform

The Mission continues to support the Parliament of Georgia in its reform goals, which are aimed at increasing the capacity of the Parliament to operate in a transparent and professional manner.

Since 2006, the Mission - jointly with the ODIHR - has supported the Centre for Parliamentary Reform in the Georgian Parliament. The Center is supervised by the Co-ordinator for International Donor Projects appointed by the Speaker of Parliament. It serves as a donor coordination body assisting the Speaker's Office and the Co-ordinator in monitoring the ongoing parliamentary reform activities and identifying further reform goals. The Centre closely co-operates with all parliamentary projects, organizes regular donor co-ordination meetings and acts as an information source on donor activities in the Parliament.

The Mission has also supported ongoing discussions about legal and financial status of the opposition in the parliament. It provided an expert, the former Head of the German Bundestag Administration, Wolfgang Zehc, who assessed the Parliament's Rules of Procedure and provided recommendations aimed at increasing personnel and budgetary resources supporting the factions in the parliament and improving their legal status. These efforts were supplemented by a visit of the Bavarian Parliament to the Georgian Parliament in 2007. During this visit, parliamentarians shared information and provided examples of best practises on the status of the opposition in parliaments.