Central Election Commission sets new boundaries for fair voting

Today Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) announced it has established new boundaries for 30 election districts in eastern Tbilisi and Rustavi, and western Kutaisi and Batumi towns to ensure fair voting for the upcoming Parliamentary Elections.

By doing this election districts will have an equal number of voters that will ensure a fairer race in the October elections.

Earlier there were a raft of complaints by opposition political parties and the civil sector about the huge difference in voter numbers at election districts, which they believed provided unfair outcomes. 

Previously there was a large discrepancy in the size of single-mandate constituencies – ranging from over 150,000 voters in the largest district to less than 6,000 voters in the smallest.

Georgia's Central Election Commission announced about changes in election districts' boundaries. Photo by the Central Election Commission. 

• Georgia’s 150-member Parliament is elected through a mixed system where 73 lawmakers are elected in 73 majoritarian, single-mandate constituencies and the remaining 77 seats are allocated by a party-list, proportional vote.

We reached the fundamental principle of ‘equality of votes’ and now the received votes will specify election mandates equally for all contesters,” said CEC chairperson Tamar Zhvania. 

The change has been recommended by the Venice Commission, the OSCE and other foreign organisations,” she said.

Zhvania thanked her staff and everyone who was involved in the process to reestablish the district borders for their efforts.