TBILISI – The National Democratic Institute (NDI) announced the arrival today of an international delegation to observe the Oct. 27 presidential election in the Republic of Georgia. The group includes political and civic leaders, election experts and regional specialists.

Heading the delegation are Sam Gejdenson, former U.S. representative from Connecticut and a member of the NDI board; Per Eklund of Sweden, former ambassador and head of the European Union delegation to Georgia; and Kenneth Yalowitz, former U.S. ambassador to Georgia. Eklund was a member of an NDI pre-election assessment mission that visited the country in September. And Gejdenson and Eklund were members of the Institute’s international delegation that observed last fall’s parliamentary elections.

The delegation’s purpose is to demonstrate the international community’s continuing support for democratic processes in Georgia. NDI has been working in the country since 1994 to support the development of the parliament, political parties and civil society.

In Tbilisi, members of the group will meet with presidential candidates, government and election officials as well as representatives of political parties, civil society, the media and the international community. They will also draw on the findings of the earlier missions.

After briefings in Tbilisi, teams of observers will deploy to locations around the country, where they will meet with local electoral authorities, party and media representatives, and domestic election monitors to assess the electoral environment. On election day, the NDI observers will visit polling stations and counting centers in their respective districts. They will then return to Tbilisi for debriefing and to prepare a preliminary statement, which will be released at a press conference, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 28.

The NDI observer mission will conduct its activities in a nonpartisan, professional manner, in accordance with Georgian law and the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation. NDI also will remain in close contact with Georgian domestic monitoring groups and other international observer delegations throughout the electoral period. The observation delegation is supported by a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Agency for International Development.