Ruling party claims NGOs planned to leave Central Election Commission unstaffed
Papuashvili also noted that the recent comments of the representatives of NGOs directly show ‘inauthentic and coordinated behaviour.’ Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office.
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Ruling Georgian Dream party MP Shalva Papuashvili has said that NGOs planned to leave the Central Election Commission (CEC) unstaffed following reforms which saw the resignation of the body’s chair Tamar Zhvania in late June, and to later stack the CEC with its own representatives.
It seems that they agreed on the voting rule and supported only two candidates, who were representatives of their own, non-governmental organisations. This is a direct conflict of interest,” Papuashvili said.
Papuashvili also noted that the recent comments of the representatives of NGOs directly show ‘inauthentic and coordinated behaviour.’
We heard from non-governmental organizations that the commission may not select candidates at all and if the candidates for the CEC chairmanship and membership could not be selected, only the political party side of the CEC would be staffed from August 1. This means that we would have a CEC with an opposition majority,” said MP Shalva Papuashvili.
It is clear that this was coordinated and agreed-upon behaviour, which is disappointing because NGOs seem to be in charge of maintaining the standard in state structures, but they themselves act beyond any standard,” said Papuashvili.
The process of interviewing candidates for the CEC chairmanship and membership came to an end yesterday.
Representatives of the NGO sector did not support the CEC chairmanship candidates.
The commission has selected and proposed to the president two candidates for the CEC chairmanship and five candidates for membership.
The president of Georgia must make a decision regarding the candidates within three days and submit two candidates for each vacant position to the parliament.
Two candidates for the post of chair and five candidates for membership on the Central Election Commission have been proposed to the president following the recent resignation of Tamar Zhvania on June 30. The Georgian parliament adopted electoral amendments on June 28 proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition party Citizens amid months of standoff between the government and opposition and were revised in compliance with the April 19 EU-mediated agreement.
The head of Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) Tamar Zhvania has resigned earlier today ‘to help the smooth implementation’ of the April 19 EU-mediated agreement. Zhvania, who has held the post for almost eight years, has stated in her Facebook post that the new head of the CEC should be elected according to recently adopted amendments in the country's Election Code ‘which are in line with the EU-mediated agreement.’
The Georgian parliament has adopted electoral amendments earlier today with its third and final reading which were initially proposed back in March 2021 by the ruling Georgian Dream party and Citizens opposition and later were revised in line with the April 19 EU-mediated agreement.
The ruling Georgian Dream party and a number of opposition parties have agreed on several constitutional amendments put forward in a EU-mediated compromise back in April to end months of political standoff.
The Georgian parliament has elected Giorgi Kalandarishvili as the new head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) in a fourth vote, following the resignation of the body’s former chair Tamar Zhvania in late June. Two other individuals, Gia Tsatsashvili and Maia Zaridze, were elected members of the commission.
The Georgian parliament has failed to elect a new chairperson and members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the third time, following the resignation of the CEC’s head Tamar Zhvania on June 30. Zhvania’s resignation was demanded by the opposition following the 2020 parliamentary elections, of which they accused her of helping the ruling Georgian Dream party to fabricate. Further changes came to the country’s electoral system on June 28 thanks to the EU-mediated agreement, which put an end to the political standoff in Georgia caused by the parliamentary elections of October 31.
The Georgian parliament has failed to elect a new head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) for a second time following the resignation of the body’s chairperson Tamar Zhvania in late June. Zhvania’s resignation followed electoral amendments proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition party Citizens which were revised in compliance with the EU-mediated agreement which ended months of political crisis caused by the parliamentary elections of 2020 and afterwards were adopted in the Georgian parliament on June 28.