The Parliament of Georgia overcame President Salome Zourabichvili's veto on the amendments to the Election Code and, despite the negative assessment of the European Commission, adopted the first version of the draft law with 78 votes against 14. The changes limit the role of the president in the process of appointing the chairman and members of the Central Election Commission.
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As a result of the legislative changes initiated by Georgian Dream, the competition for the selection of the chairman of the CEC and 7 members will be announced, and the Competition Commission will be created, by the chairman of the parliament, instead of the president. The commission will have 9 members, including one representative of the president. According to the amendments, the CEC chairman and members will be presented to the Parliament by the Chairman of the Parliament (instead of the President). If the Parliament fails to elect persons to the vacant positions in the first instance, which is unlikely, the President will be authorized to present her candidates to the Parliament. After the changes, the parliament will elect the chairman and members of the CEC for a term of 5 years, with majority support - 76 deputies. According to the current version of the Election Code, in order to elect the CEC chairman and members for a 5-year term of office, the support of 2/3 of the full composition of the parliament, i.e. 100 deputies, is required. In case of election with less than 2/3 support, their term of office is only 6 months.
Today, at the extraordinary plenary session of the Parliament, President's remarks were presented by her parliamentary secretary, Giorgi Mskhiladze.
“As the President of Georgia is a non-party official, and the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia is a member of the ruling party elected by the majority of the Parliament, reducing the role of the President in the process of electing the so-called non-party, professional members and the chairman of CEC, should be considered unjustified,” said Mskhiladze.
The president considers it important that the need for consensus in the parliamentary procedure for choosing the chairman and the so-called professional members be maintained – „so that they are not elected unilaterally, only by the parliamentary majority, and the independence of the institution and non-partisanship of the chairman/members is not threatened.”
The Parliamentary Secretary of the President drew attention to the European Commission's report of June 22, which criticizes the legislative amendments adopted by the Parliament and notes that they need to be withdrawn in order to fulfill the recommendation on the improvement of the framework of the electoral legislation.
“Considering that there is very little time left before the decision on granting the EU candidate status is due, and our every step is of crucial importance, I urge you not to override the said veto, to take the remarks into account, and to continue consultations in the Parliament on the election of the CEC chairman and members,” - said Mskhiladze.
The members of the parliamentary opposition opposed the changes in the election code, and believe that the ultimate goal of Georgian Dream is for the chairman of the CEC to be an insider to the ruling party.
“I might not have any problems with Giorgi Kalandarishvili [CEC acting chairman - red.], but let us ask why this became an issue. Why should necessarily Kalandarishvili be the chairman? Why not someone else? This whole story began because you, the Georgian Dream, wanted specifically Kalandarishvili, and the consensus was not reached. Is there no other person? There are plenty of people in our country who want this position, but you need a trusted person. Trust does not appear out of thin air,” said the member of the Girchi party, Aleksandre Rakviashvili.
According to the Chairman of Georgian Dream Irakli Kobakhidze, the president was acting on orders and was trying to artificially create a crisis in the CEC.
“For more than two years, we have not had a fully elected chairman and two members in the CEC. Giorgi Kalandarishvili, the acting chairman, and also two members have conducted several elections including local government elections across the country and several by-elections. I would like to remind you that there were no critical comments regarding any of these elections. These people take part in the competition again; the competition reveals that they are the best in their competence and integrity and yet they are not nominated by the President. The reason is that the representatives of the previous regime do not support Kalandarishvili and two members of the CEC,” said Kobakhidze.
At the moment, Giorgi Kalandarishvili is acting as the chairman of the CEC. At the extraordinary session of the Parliament held on December 22, 2022, one of the two candidates for the chairmanship of the CEC, Tamar Alfaidze, nominated by President Salome Zourabichvili, was not supported by any MP, and only one MP voted for the other one, Revaz Egadze. Giorgi Kalandarishvili also participated in the selection contest, but the president did not submit his candidacy to the parliament, which was explained by the fact that in the previous two cases, Kalandarishvili could not garner the support of 2/3 of the parliament, and therefore, he was elected to the position for a period of 6-6 months.
