President Bruce George to lead OSCE Observation of Georgian Elections

COPENHAGEN, 29 October 2003 - The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, Bruce George, will arrive in Tbilisi on Thursday to lead the OSCE Observers for the Parliamentary Elections in Georgia, which will take place on Sunday 2 November 2003.

Mr. George will act as the Special Co-ordinator of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, leading the Mission and delivering the preliminary post election statement on Monday 3 November in conjunction with other official election observers.

The OSCE PA Observer Team includes 25 representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly from Armenia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is also working in close co-operation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.

The OSCE Election Observation Mission is a joint effort between the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. The OSCE Observation Mission will assess the conduct of the elections, the political campaign and the role of the media.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, created by the CSCE Summit in Paris in 1990, is the parliamentary wing of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The primary task of the 317 member Assembly is to facilitate interparliamentary dialogue, an important aspect of the overall effort to meet the challenges of democracy throughout the OSCE area.