President Presents CEC Chairperson, Member Candidates

The President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili presented two candidates for the chairpersonship of the Central Election Commission (CEC) and two candidates for membership.

The President had to select a total of four candidates for two vacant positions of the CEC membership, however, she selected candidates for only one vacant post, and announced a re-competition to select the other one.

President Zurabishvili presented Kristine Kajaia and Levan Isakadze as candidates. For the chairperson post, the President proposed Tamar Alfaidze and Revaz Egadze.

Alpaidze holds a Doctor of Law Degree from Tbilisi State University and according to the autobiography uploaded to the website of the President’s Administration, she has been engaged in scientific and pedagogical activities since 2001. She has lectured in various higher education institutions, including Tbilisi State University, Ilia State University, Tbilisi Humanitarian University, Caucasus University, and the University of Georgia, among others. Along with her native tongue of Georgian, Alpaidze also speaks Russian, English, and Spanish.

As for Egadze, he is also a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Tbilisi State University and holds a master’s degree from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) specializing in local self-government and governance. Per his autobiography, Egadze has been the head of the CEC’s training process monitoring group since 2022. From 2017-2020, he was the Deputy Mayor of Gardabani Municipality. Between August to November 2017, Egadze was a member and Deputy Chairperson of the 21st District Election Commission of Gardabani Municipality. From 2008-2015, he held the positions of the head of the administrative service of the Gardabani Municipality Board and then – the advisor to the governor.

President Zurabishvili announced the competition for selecting the CEC chairperson and two members on July 13. A total of 5 candidates applied for the post of chairperson while 10 candidates expressed their desire for membership. Three of them were rejected at the very first phase of the competition for having incomplete documents.

The competition commission presented only three candidates to the President for the position of the CEC chairperson, among them was the acting chairperson, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, who participated in this competition for the third time but was not selected by the President.

Kalandarishvili said in a conversation with Interpressnews, that “this decision [of the President] was somewhat unexpected.” “I don’t know about the circumstances and motives that formed the basis of this particular decision, especially in light of the fact that I have already been nominated by the President twice… Therefore, it would be interesting to hear the explanations that the administration will have in this direction if there are any,” he added.

As for the applicants for CEC membership, the competition commission submitted only 5 candidates to President Zurabishvili.

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