Georgian Parliament Speaker approves amendments to Central Election Administration staff elections
The Speaker said the “experimental law” had been in effect for over three years even while the April 19 Agreement had been cancelled, and said the Government “could not allow futile experiments” before the upcoming elections. Photo: Shalva Papuashvili/twitter
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Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Monday said he had signed into law amendments to the Election Code regulations concerning elections of members and the Chair of the Central Election Administration.
Papuashvili said the document would give the lawmaking body an opportunity to overcome a “three-year-long stalemate” stemming from the European Union-mediated April 19, 2020 Agreement between the Government and domestic opposition to resolve tensions stemming from that year’s parliamentary elections.
I would like to highlight that previous regulation – for electing Commission members with a two-thirds majority and appointing an opposition politician as a substitute Chairperson – does not exist [as a practice] in any country”, he said in comments.
Moreover, this strange rule was not elaborated based on the dialogue between the parties, but was an idea insisted on by the mediator, and it obviously has not worked and would not have worked, especially during the period before the upcoming elections”, he said.
The lawmaker also claimed the domestic opposition would have “used this stalemate as an excuse for not recognising” results of this year's parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 26.
A law that brings us to a stalemate shall be amended. This is an axiom. And a stalemate created by the law that can facilitate radicalism and damage the country shall be amended as soon as possible”, he added.
The Speaker said the “experimental law” had been in effect for over three years even while the April 19 Agreement had been cancelled, and said the Government “could not allow futile experiments” before the upcoming elections.
Shalva Papuashvili, the Georgian Parliament Speaker, on Monday said the introduction of electronic voting across the country ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary Elections would “remove all kinds of speculation” by domestic “radical groups” about “rigged elections”.
Giorgi Kalandarishvili, the Chair of the Central Election Commission of Georgia, said the interim parliamentary and mayoral elections across the country on Sunday had “proved” the “readiness” of the election administration, voters and the public for electronic voting.
Preparations for next year’s parliamentary elections in Georgia and introduction of an electronic voting system ahead of the vote were discussed in a meeting between a delegation of the Central Election Commission of Georgia and representatives of the United States Agency for International Development and International Republican Institute in Washington on Tuesday.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili on Sunday said it was in the Georgian Government’s “interest” to hold the 2024 Parliamentary Elections “at the highest standard”.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry on Monday addressed Matteo Mecacci, the Director of the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, with an invitation to send observers for the general elections in the country, set for October.
EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell has said that the April 19 EU-mediated agreement remains a "roadmap" for Georgia's European integration, pointing out that the agreement had helped to end a "toxic boycott of the Parliament" after the 2020 elections.
Four Georgian-based non-governmental organisations that reviewed the implementation of the European Union-mediated April 19 agreement between the Georgian government and opposition, which put an end to six months of political tension over the country’s October 2020 parliamentary elections, say ambitious electoral reform was partly carried out in the country while pointing out that the fulfilment of judicial reforms almost failed.
Ruling Georgian Dream party head Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday said a reinstatement of the European Union-mediated agreement between Georgian political actors last year, a deal designed to resolve tensions stemming from the 2020 parliamentary elections, was “not possible”.