Tonino Picula at a Tbilisi polling station on 1 October 2012. TBILISI, 2 October 2012 – Georgia's parliamentary elections marked an important step in consolidating the conduct of democratic elections, although certain key issues remain to be addressed, concluded the international election observers in a statement released today. The elections were competitive, with active citizen participation through the campaign, but the campaign environment

Tonino Picula (MP, Croatia) opens the short-term observer briefing on 29 September. TBILISI, 30 September 2012 – The international observers monitoring the parliamentary elections in Georgia will present their preliminary post-election statement at a news conference on Tuesday, 2 October, in Tbilisi. The mission is a joint undertaking of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

TBILISI, Georgia, 1 October 2012 -- Tonino Picula (MP, Croatia), the special co-ordinator to lead the OSCE short-term election observation mission to Georgia, and more than 50 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly headed to polling stations today to monitor election day activity. In a joint statement released Saturday by the heads of the Parliamentary delegations of the OSCE, Council of Europe, NATO and the European Parliament, observers

Tbilisi, 29 September 2012 — The Heads of the Parliamentary delegations of the OSCE, Council of Europe, NATO and the European Parliament call on all election stakeholders and political leaders to use the remaining hours of the election campaign to promote their political platforms and exercise restraint, renounce violence and not respond to provocation. "We believe that the Georgian people must be able to exercise their civil and democratic

ROME, 27 September 2012 – OSCE PA President Riccardo Migliori (Italy) today released the following statement after an Italian court upheld a 14-month prison sentence for libel in the case of Il Giornale editor Allessandro Sallusti: "The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly expresses its serious concern about the worrying judgment handed down by Italy's Court of Cassation, which has confirmed on appeal the conviction on a libel charge and the sentence to

COPENHAGEN, 27 September 2012 – The OSCE PA today welcomed the release of political prisoner Siarhei Kavalenka of the Conservative Christian Party Belarusian Popular Front. The release follows Kavalenka's plea for pardon, made several weeks ago to the President of Belarus. "We welcome the news of Kavalenka's release but remain strongly concerned about the fate of others still serving harsh sentences, like Ales Bialiatski and Zmitser Dashkevich