BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 30
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The European Union has announced the deployment of a European diplomatic watch, which will send over 70 teams to visit over 1,000 polling stations in Georgia on the election day on October 31, Trend reports via Georgian media.
The diplomatic watch will be composed of members of the EU Delegation to Georgia, the EU Member State embassies of Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland.
The teams will support the ongoing OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission, which has limited its mission in Georgia amid the COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel and health restrictions.
"On Election Day we will be taking on an unprecedented role to actively monitor the conduct of these elections. Together with our Member States and European partners, we will be coordinating a massive Diplomatic Watch effort”, EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell said.
Meanwhile, the EU Ambassador hopes for ‘more constructive policy debates and an improved culture of consensus-building’ for the fully proportional elections in 2024.
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