According to ISFED, although the OSCE/ODIHR’s main focus is on parliamentary and presidential elections, they are also actively interested in local elections.

This is how ISFED responds to the statement of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, where he noted that “it is unnecessary to burden OSCE/ODIHR with the Tbilisi local government elections.”

Speaking about the importance of monitoring, ISFED emphasizes that the involvement of an international observation mission in local elections is essential to ensure the transparency and credibility of democratic processes.

“Today it became known that Georgia does not intend to invite the OSCE/ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) observation mission for the October 4 municipal elections. Irakli Kobakhidze cited the lack of practice of inviting OSCE/ODIHR to local elections as the reason for this, and presented the invitation of the OSCE/ODIHR mission to the 2021 municipal elections as an exception.

For information, OSCE/ODIHR has observed municipal elections in Georgia four times since 2006. In addition to Georgia, from 1997 to 2024, OSCE/ODIHR also sent observation missions to 34 local elections held in 13 other countries that did not coincide with other types of voting. In addition, local elections in a number of countries are subject to monitoring within the framework of general elections or in conjunction with other types of national elections. Although the main focus is on parliamentary and/or presidential elections, local elections are also a subject of active interest for the OSCE/ODIHR in those European states where democracy has not yet been consolidated," reads the information released by ISFED.