International

In a packed meeting room in De Moed, the new party headquarters in Amersfoort, the SP party council evaluated the recent election campaign. There was criticism and self-criticism, the most important amongst which was that the SP had been too cautious. There were compliments for Emile Roemer and for the host of active members.

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel will be an official observer at Monday’s elections in Georgia. Van Bommel will form part of the delegation of 350 observers despatched by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) whose members will be joined by a hundred observers from foreign embassies in Georgia. The ruling United National Movement (UNM), led by current president Mikheil Saakashvili, will be challenged principally by a coalition of opposition parties calling itself Georgian Dream. Saakashvili has been under fire as a result of a scandal involving torture in a Georgian prison, acts which formed the subject of a recently revealed video taken inside the facility.