NGOs Submit Draft Amendments to Election Legislation

The draft law on the amendments and additions to the Election Code of Georgia prepared by the non-governmental organizations was discussed during the meeting at the Open Society – Georgia Foundation on February 26.   

The discussions over making amendments to the Election Code of Georgia were launched last November, when the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Issues developed draft amendments to the code.

However, the non-governmental sector did not approve the suggestions submitted by the committee: “We agreed with the idea of professional election administration, however many issues, including the criteria for selecting the persons, were unacceptable for us,” Ani Dolidze of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA)  says. 

Taking into account the variety of opinions, the non-governmental sector and the Parliament agreed that the Parliament would suspend discussions over making amendments to the code until mid-March and expect alternative suggestions from the non-governmental sector.

A group of non-governmental organizations working over the issue of elections was set up last December. It united the Fair Elections Foundation, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, the Civil Society Institute, the UN Association of Georgia, the International Center for Civil Culture, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, the Liberty Institute and the Open Society – Georgia Foundation. 

The amendments basically regard the rule of composing the election administrations and their mandates. Noteworthy, that the mentioned draft amendments definitely include a compromising stance of the non-governmental organizations. The document, which is elaborated by the non-governmental organizations, does not reflect all the opinions and ideas of the non-governmental sector regarding the election system.

For example, the Liberty Institute has different vision, which conceptually changes the approach towards the legal language. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy also has a different version, according to which the election administrations should be composed through a party list system. However, the group did not take these opinions into account.      

In the opinion of the representatives of the non-governmental organizations, the most important issue that distinguishes the NGO-prepared draft from that developed by the parliamentary committee is distribution of functions and authorities inside the election institute.

According to the previous law, only one body – the Central Election Commission existed. Accordingly, the functions were not clearly distributed  and as a rule, it was rather difficult to find a responsible person.

“According to the amendments elaborated by the group, the entire election institute is divided into two parts: supervisory council and election administration, which will be led by the executive director,” Lasha Jugeli, lawyer from the UN Association of Georgia, says. 

The supervisory council is responsible for defining key policy trends and election affairs, as well as for approving the budget. While the executive director is a direct executor of the election legislation and the decisions made by the supervisory council. He is responsible for each step taken in the direction of election administration.
At the same time, the draft includes a very important principle regarding composition of election administration on a basis of professions: “The members of the central administration will neither  be nominated by the political parties nor be their members. The old epoch should be over,” Ani Dolidze says.

According to the draft amendments prepared by the non-governmental sector, the central election administration will be composed by the competition commission. The latter will reveal 27 persons, who enjoy public trust and have good reputation, through an open competition and submit them to the President. In his turn, the President will select 18 persons out of 27 and submit them to the Parliament. Finally the Parliament will approve only 9 candidates.

However, the criteria for setting up a competition commission are rather obscure and unclear: “Public trust and good reputation, honesty and other similar concepts cannot be considered as clear criteria for selecting candidates. This is not enough to believe that the election institute has been set up impartially and will further act independently,” Lasha Jugeli claims.

At the same time the NGO representatives state that public competitions will be held to select members of district commissions, who will work over raising public awareness and making up lists so that to ensure effective holding of elections.        

The rule of composition of polling stations approbated in Mexico is also innovative. Sixty days before the elections, 21 potential members of polling stations will be selected from the voter lists through an occasional method. They will be trained in electoral issues, and two days before the elections a final composition of the polling station will be revealed. At the same time, according to the draft amendments developed by the non-governmental sector, number of the members of polling stations will be proportional to the population of the district.

The members of the working group claim that this draft is not perfect and needs further perfection. “The non-governmental sector will continue to further discuss this option within a week. We expect written proposals from other non-governmental organizations as well,” Ani Dolidze says.

Afterwards the draft will be submitted to the Parliament for further consideration by the committees. However, this does not ensure that the amendments elaborated by the NGOs will be shared.