Before the 2024 parliamentary elections, the ruling Georgian Dream made additional changes to the election code, including the abolishment of the Central Election Commission's advisory group. Moreover, a draft law registered in Parliament on May 2 aims to simplify the decision-making process during CEC sessions.
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Based on the Election Code, the CEC Advisory Group is established within 10 days of the election period. It comprises a representative from the Office of the Public Defender and international and/or local experts selected by monitoring organizations, numbering no fewer than 9 and no more than 15 members. The advisory group is tasked with submitting recommendations to the CEC regarding the dispute review process. It may also be assigned additional functions, such as monitoring the recounting process of voting results.
Deputies of Georgian Dream state that the expediency of canceling the advisory group is confirmed by existing practical experience. "This group does not actually function, mainly due to the unwillingness of monitoring organizations to participate in its activities," say the authors of the draft law.
The draft law also defines what Georgian Dream calls the so-called anti-dead end mechanism. Specifically, if a decision of the CEC, requiring the support of at least two-thirds of the full composition of the commission, is not adopted as a result of voting at the CEC session, it will be revoted at the same session. The decision will be considered adopted if it is supported by the majority of the full composition of the CEC.
Based on the current law, the election commission makes decisions related to the annulment of decisions made by subordinate election commissions, including the cancellation of election district/precinct results, the opening of packets received from precinct election commissions, and the recounting of election ballots, with the support of at least two-thirds.
"Especially important decisions are made with the support of two-thirds, and the support of the members appointed by the opposition parties was also considered for this. Georgian Dream sometimes fails to gather a two-thirds majority in the CEC and has decided to remove this barrier altogether - to make any decision with a simple majority, i.e., through the core, the clan managed them," says Giorgi Sioridze, who represents the Lelo party in the Election Commission. He was also the deputy chairman of the CEC, although the parliament abolished the position of opposition deputy in March of this year.
The authors of the draft law are Anri Okhanashvili, the chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, Rati Ionatamishvili, the chairman of the Human Rights Protection Committee, and other majority members - Davit Matikashvili, Aluda Ghudushauri, Aleksandre Tabatadze, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, Irakli Shatakishvili, Guram Macharashvili, and Ketevan Charkviani.
