Parliament fails to elect head of Central Election Commission in second vote
The NGO sector did not support the CEC chairmanship candidates either, noting that the selected candidates ‘do not meet the most important criteria, which is high public credibility.’ Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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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.
The candidacies of Giorgi Kalandarishvili and Giorgi Santuriani were submitted for the chair of the CEC by Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili to parliament, but none of them received the required 100 votes to be elected to the position for a five-year term.
Kalandarishvili received 83 votes in favour and 11 against, while Santuriani was supported by four votes and 11 were against.
Another vote will take place in the near future which will require 90 votes and if the candidate again fails to get this number of votes, then 76 votes will be enough for the election to the post for six months.
Vice-speaker of Parliament Archil Talakvadze said that the opposition was not ‘properly involved’ in the process of selecting candidates for the CEC chairmanship and assessed it as a ‘weak and crooked’ decision.
Talakvadze accused the opposition of ‘escaping from its political responsibility’ and pledged that the ruling party will elect the ‘most deserving candidate’ for the post.
A leader of the opposition United National Movement party, Khatia Dekanoidze, expressed distrust of the selected candidates and noted that the approval of Kalandarishvili’s candidacy violates the agreement and that following such a move ‘trust in the CEC would not be restored.’
The NGO sector did not support the CEC chairmanship candidates either, noting that the selected candidates ‘do not meet the most important criteria, which is high public credibility.’
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.
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 representative.
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 Administration of the President of Georgia submitted its list of candidates for the positions of the Central Election Commission (CEC) head and members to the parliament earlier today.