Georgia: Political Situation

Lord Dodds of Duncairn Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

Yes, I can confirm that we are doing that, and our Minister of State, Mr Doughty, is having many meetings at the moment—bilaterally and multilaterally—to try and make that very point.

[Lord Dodds of Duncairn (DUP)]

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, I had the honour of being part of the OSCE election monitoring mission last month and we witnessed the intimidation and election malpractices of the Georgian Dream party. But what we also witnessed was the tremendous courage, dedication and work of NGOs, and of many young people in particular, at the polling stations and throughout the length and breadth of Georgia. Can the Minister tell us what can be done with our international partners to strengthen support for and solidify the work of those NGOs?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We are very clear that what we have seen the NGOs and civil society more generally experience in Georgia recently is unacceptable, and we will work in any way that we can. This is something that is quite deep-rooted—our concerns about this are not just new and relating to this election, as we have seen cyberattacks and risks to cybersecurity in Georgia that we have tried to work to strengthen and protect it against. The truth is that this is getting more and more difficult, and these elections have really brought things that have been going on for some time to a head.