A Race for the New Election Code

With so Many Proposals on the Table, Selection may Prove Difficult

On the eve of the upcoming Parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 2003, the issue of adopting a new election code tops the political agenda.

On February 10, President Eduard Shevardnadze decreed to form a special sub-commission to reform the election system.

“The new election code should be founded on the society’s consensus. Fair and democratic elections should be our primary goal,” said the President in the February 10 interview to the national radio. He also said that non-governmental organizations should participate in the process along with the political parties.

While the necessity of the consensus on election code is beyond doubt, reaching it will require reconciliation of several views already laid out in several draft versions.

Only the pro-governmental Citizens Union of Georgia (CUG) has already drafted three versions of the new code. One of them has already triggered fears among the opposition forces, as it completely excludes the representatives of the opposition parties from the Central Election Commission.

The parties justify necessity of the new code with “complete uselessness” of the present one. They are particularly displeased with rules of composition of the election commissions, especially the Central Election Commission (CEC). The main issue however, which constantly frustrated the opposition parties, is falsification of the election results by the election commissions, which are, opposition argues, manipulated by the executive government.

On February 7 opposition MPs Giorgi Targamadze and Valeri Gelbakhiani presented their version of the code to the public. Considering previous failures in CEC activities, their project sees no role for the CEC in vote calculation, entrusting the courts with the function. The CEC will only be responsible for organizational issues, such as equipping the precinct and district election commissions.

“Several countries, for example Italy, practice participation of the judges in vote calculation. We have considered this option in the draft as the courts enjoy higher confidence of the society in Georgia,” MP Valeri Gelbakhiani told Civil Georgia.

Other drafts also see the role of the courts in the election process. Several opposition parties, as well as the ruling party suggest that the Supreme Court should have its representatives in the CEC. One of such draft foresees participation of three Supreme Court judges, three appointees of the President and the Parliament.

Notably, each suggested draft of the code also sees the role of NGOs in the election process. The civil sector is expressing willingness to undertake such functions.

“It is a great progress that the society plays one of the major role in the suggested schemes. But it is necessary to maintain the parity. Everyone, the non-governmental organizations, the political parties and the governmental structures should have equal rights in the election commissions,” Nugzar Kupreishvili of the election watchdog NGO International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) told Civil Georgia.

In the nearest future one additional draft of the election code is posed to appear. This document is being drafted by the inter-party coalition, recently created as a result of the New Rights party’s initiative.

The number of the drafts already makes the different views difficult to reconcile, even in cases when they seem compatible, as each of the proposing groups stands by its version. While all players agree it is necessary to change the current code, some experts fear the parties may end up with having to run the elections with the old code, after failing to compromise on the new one.

Nevertheless, some politicians remain optimistic. “We all understand that all projects could not be accepted. But if we combine these projects through mutual consultations we will find the final one,” Valeri Gelbakhiani says.

In all cases, the presidential commission has a long road ahead of it, and the pending date of the elections in drawing near.

By Goga Chanadiri