Parliament Speaker: Election observers pressured OSCE mission to fake 2024 vote findings; international probe needed

“We have verified confirmation, including from members of the OSCE observation mission who have spoken openly across various formats, that on the day following the 2024 elections, just as the mission was due to publish its preliminary findings, direct pressure was exerted on the OSCE team during a joint meeting with the Council of Europe and European Parliament missions to falsify their conclusions,” stated the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili.

When asked who had exerted this pressure, Papuashvili replied: ‘The observation missions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament. ALDE member Iulian Bulai led the Council of Europe’s mission. Not only does his group include the terrorist Lelo party, but Bulai himself is widely known for his overt anti-Georgian stance. I say nothing of the European Parliament; their biases are already well understood.’

In Papuashvili’s view, a mechanism must be established to conduct an international investigation into the coercion faced by the OSCE observation mission in 2024.

“We need to consider establishing a mechanism for an international investigation into the pressure placed on the OSCE monitoring mission in 2024, when attempts were made to force them to falsify their own report. The Council of Europe and European Parliament monitoring missions were involved in this. I do not know what mechanism might exist, but we must think of a way to conduct an international inquiry. Interfering in another nation’s elections and sovereignty, including bullying the international mission, constitutes an international crime. This is a fact, and members of the monitoring mission itself have repeatedly spoken about it in various formats, including in my presence,” Papuashvili stated.

Regarding whether Georgian Dream intends to invite the OSCE observation mission for the 2028 elections, Papuashvili noted that the recent OSCE Parliamentary Assembly resolution on Georgia has raised serious questions about whether future OSCE missions will remain resilient against such coercion.

“It is an absolute fact that in 2024, pressure was brought to bear on the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly observation mission to falsify their report. At the time, that coercion failed to achieve its aim. However, looking at this recent Parliamentary Assembly resolution, we must ask ourselves how resilient future OSCE observation missions will be against such underhanded pressure. This resolution has profoundly shaken our confidence that any OSCE mission can stand firm under duress.

First, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly must reassure the Georgian people that it can still withstand bullying from the Council of Europe or others, just as it did in 2024. In effect, the Parliamentary Assembly has shattered the Georgian public’s trust in its impartiality with this resolution. Therefore, it is critical that before 2028, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly restores its credibility in the eyes of the Georgian people, so we can be certain they will resist hostile pressures and refuse to rig their reports.

On the day after the 2024 elections, the Council of Europe and European Parliament missions locked themselves in a hotel room with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly observation mission, explicitly demanding that they falsify their report,” Papuashvili stated.

When asked where this meeting took place, Papuashvili replied: ‘In one of the hotels.’