On July 3, the parliamentary majority of Georgian Dream, declared the President's veto on the amendments to the Electoral Code overcome with 78 votes against 14. With the amendments, the role of the president in the process of electing the chairman and members of the Central Election Commission has been limited, and Georgian Dream will be able to make one-party decisions on appointing these officials.
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“I want to address the Speaker and the chief bailiff, I think there [pointing to where the members of the majority are sat] are no 76 votes, please recount. Please count 76 people in the hall. I counted 72,” exclaimed Aleksandre Rakviashvili, a member of the Girchi party, immediately after the voting results were displayed on the board.
Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili did not grant this appeal of the opposition MP and replied: “If you want to count, count yourself, what are even talking about.”
According to the voting results published later, 78 MPs supported the original iteration of the draft law adopted by the parliament on June 13, only two more. 76 votes were needed to overcome the veto.
According to the document, the original iteration of the draft law was voted for by 67 members of the Georgian Dream, 9 members of the People’s Power political movement, and 2 members of European Socialists (Fridon Injia and Avtandil Enukidze).
From the footage, which is a complete recording of the parliament session, Georgian News counted how many deputies were present at the hall at the time when the speaker of parliament initiated the vote.
In the session hall, there are 61 deputies from Georgian Dream, figuring plus one vote from Speaker Shalva Papuashvili adds up to 62 votes, not 67, as it was reflected in the final results of the voting.
“73 MPs voted for overcoming the veto when 76 votes were needed,” says Rakviashvili, and points out that according to the regulations, the Speaker of the parliament should have counted the votes immediately, but he refused to do so and proceeded with the session.
“The veto was overridden with a blatant violation of the procedure, especially considering that the violation was detected on the spot, and the recount of votes was requested. Obviously, this calls the legitimacy of the entire election legislation into question, and will also make the legitimacy of any future elections questionable,” says Rakviashvili.
Apparently, in order to overcome the veto of the President, the members of Georgian Dream voted in place of their fellow party members who were not present, which is a violation of the Parliament's regulations.
According to the regulations, transferring the right to vote or the voting card to someone else is forbidden. The regulation also provides for the procedure for recounting the voting results. In particular, a duly motivated statement by a group of at least seven fraction or non-fraction members of the parliament that questions the results of the vote shall be immediately submitted to the chairman of the plenary session of the parliament, who will hand the matter over to the chief bailiff for study. The bailiff will study the issue and report the conclusion to the Parliament immediately. If as a result of the said conclusion, it is confirmed that the votes were falsified, a re-voting is held only if the number of questionable votes is sufficient to change the outcome of the vote.
Georgian Dream is not going to respond to this issue. As the chairman of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee, Mikheil Sarjveladze, said, this is not interesting to him: “The position is clear, I have no reason to suspect anything. I think that there are simply people who are motivated to rub dirt on the reputation of the government in some way,” said Sarjveladze.
