Parliament passed with its first reading on June 12 draft of amendments to the election code.
Among the changes are provisions to reflect in the election code recent constitutional amendments allowing Georgian Dream opposition coalition Bidzina Ivanishvili to vote and be elected in parliamentary and presidential elections this October and next year, respectively, without having Georgian citizenship, as well as a provision cutting age limit for MP from 25 to 21.
In other amendments, December 31, 2012 has been set as a date when mandate of the state-funded Voters’ List Verification Commission (VLVC) will end.
According to the amendments to the election code, VLVC will be given right to carry out verification process of the list on the election day too.
“Our representatives will check voters list at polling station on the election day to verify whether they match with those compiled by the commission,” VLVC chairman Mamuka Katsitadze of New Rights Party said on June 13.
VLVC is currently carrying out door-to-door verification of the voters’ list and according to the commission this activity is already nearing its end.
The amendments, which have yet to be passed with its second and third reading, also lay out principles, which an international election observation organization should meet in order to be registered to monitor Georgia’s elections; these are: “respecting Georgian legislation, sovereignty and international human rights norms; refraining from hampering the electoral process; political impartiality; financial independence from the participants of Georgia’s electoral process and transparency of financial sources; ruling out conflict of interests and observation of regulations recognized by the declaration of the key principles of international election observation”.