OSCE/ODIHR issues final reports on elections in Georgia and Serbia

WARSAW, 2 March 2004 - The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has issued its final reports on the observation of recent parliamentary elections in Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the presidential election in Georgia. The reports contain comprehensive recommendations for improving the election process in these two OSCE participating States.

The final observation reports the follow preliminary statements issued immediately after the 28 December 2003 parliamentary elections in Serbia and 4 January 2004 presidential election in Georgia, respectively.

Nikolai Vulchanov (Bulgaria) led the observation mission to Serbia, where some 180 international observers were deployed. The mission concluded that the elections were generally well organized, but called for long-overdue changes to the election law.

The observation mission to Georgia, led by Craig Jenness (Canada), deployed some 450 observers from 38 OSCE participating States. The mission concluded that the election had brought Georgia closer to meeting international standards in several respects and demonstrated notable progress over the seriously flawed 2 November 2003 parliamentary, elections that were partially annulled by the Supreme Court.

The OSCE/ODIHR has deployed an observation mission to monitor the repeat parliamentary elections in Georgia, scheduled to take place on 28 March.