Georgian Dream Plans Election Code Amendments Ahead of Parliamentary Elections
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Five months prior to the parliamentary elections, Georgian Dream intends to implement additional amendments to the election code.
According to the draft law, authored by members of the parliamentary majority, the decision-making procedure at the CEC session will be altered.
Specifically, as per the ruling party's proposal, Article 8 of the Election Code should be appended to Article 4/1, with the following content:
"If, following voting at the CEC session, a decision requiring the support of at least two-thirds of the full composition of the CEC cannot be adopted, it will be subject to a re-vote during the same session. In this case, the decision will pass if most members of the CEC support it.
Based on the explanatory note, this is known as the "Anti-deadlock" mechanism designed to address such situations.
"This change will contribute to the effective functioning of the Central Election Commission and prevent disruption of its activities," the explanatory note reads.
Furthermore, the draft law eliminates the advisory group of the CEC, which, according to the Election Code of Georgia, is formed during the election period within 10 days after the appointment of the elections.
"The expediency of canceling the advisory group of the CEC is confirmed by existing practical experience, which clearly demonstrated that this group, comprising international and/or local experts selected by the representative of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia and monitoring organizations, did not effectively function. This lack of functionality was primarily due to the monitoring organizations' reluctance to participate," the note reads.
