(26 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tbilisi, Georgia – 26 October 2024
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
1. Various of people inside polling station including Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) observers wearing armbands
2. Various of woman holding dog as she registers with election officials
3. Mid of OSCE observers
4. Woman holding dog casting vote
5. Mid of OSCE observers
6. Voters and election officials
7. Eoghan Murphy, the head of OSCE election observation mission in Georgia, taking notes
8. OSCE logo on armband
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Eoghan Murphy, head of OSCE election observation mission:
"We were invited by the authorities to come and observe these parliamentary elections and I and my core team arrived in the country on the 10th September. Since that time we have been observing the campaign and the electoral process. We’ve also had 30 long-term observers across the country since the 19th September also observing areas of operation: what is happening with the campaign and what is happening with the preparations for election day. Now, on election day as people go out to cast their vote we have more than 300 short-term observers from the OSCE participating states going to the polling stations across the country and observing the voting process. "
10. Murphy talking to media
11. Roundabout with EU and Georgian flags
STORYLINE:
Voters in Georgia headed to the polls on Saturday with hundreds of election observers monitoring what many citizens see as a make-or-break vote on the opportunity to join the European Union.
Representatives from Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) were at polling stations in Tbilisi and across the country to observe the voting process.
The head of the OSCE mission, Eoghan Murphy, said he and his team had also been tracking campaigning in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people in the weeks before.
This run-up had been dominated by foreign policy and marked by a bitter fight for votes and allegations of a smear campaign.
Some Georgians complained of intimidation and being pressured to vote for the ruling party, Georgian Dream, while the opposition accused the party of carrying out a “hybrid war” against its citizens.
Ahead of the parliamentary election, Bidzina Ivanishvili — a shadowy billionaire who set up Georgian Dream and made his fortune in Russia — vowed again to ban opposition parties should his party win.
Around 80% of Georgians favor joining the EU according to polls and the country’s constitution obliges its leaders to pursue membership in that bloc and NATO.
But Brussels put Georgia’s bid for entry to the EU on hold indefinitely after the ruling party passed a “Russian law” cracking down on freedom of speech in June.
Many Georgians fear the party is dragging the country towards authoritarianism and killing off hopes it could join the EU.
AP video shot by Aleksandre Jorjadze
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