The Speaker, Mr. David Usupashvili held the meeting with NDI and IRI Observation Missions. He thanked the mission members for visiting Georgia and their activity and spoke about importance of international observation missions. The parties discussed pre-election milieu and current situation.
After the meeting, Mr. Usupashvili noted that on October 8, NDI and IRI, along with OSCE, CoE and the representatives of other Parliaments will observe the elections.
“I met with two very important observation organizations – NDI and IRI. These two US organizations are one of the most active observers in election processes. We host the highest rank delegations of these organizations, composed of the European politicians and as always, intend to develop an unbiased conclusion.
We unanimously noted that no comparison can be made with the situation in August-September, 2012, though they expressed their concern about the recent events and grave consequences of violence entailing threat that should be prevented.
I believe that presence of NDI, IRI, OSCE, CoE and other observers will be productive. I personally appealed to the Speakers of up to 30 Parliaments to dispatch the observers. Most of them responded and I hope that this fact will cool those hot guns down who try make impact on electors through other means, is it explosives or conversations of explosives, is it direct violence or psychological pressure on electors.
So, once more, I would like to address Georgian citizens that their free choice will be guaranteed, including due to presence of international observers because you will not be allowed making mistakes before the elections and the citizens themselves shall make their choice about our future. This is why presence of international colleagues is important today”.