Electoral bill for Georgia’s EU candidacy conditions to be proposed in September - ruling party MP

Electoral amendments necessary for obtaining the European Union membership candidate status for Georgia will be proposed in September by the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee, with the bill drafted in line with recommendations of the Parliamentary working group set up earlier this month to address electoral issues, ruling Georgian Dream party MP Givi Mikanadze said on Thursday. 

• Ruling party-proposed group to revise election code for Georgia’s EU candidacy holds first meeting

Following the second meeting of the working group earlier on Thursday, chaired by Mikanadze, the MP said amendments over the composition of district election commissions, certification of their members, facilitation of participation of people with disabilities in elections, election-related financial questions and other electoral topics were expected to be come with the deadline of September 21. 

The majority of electoral matters were addressed in previous years. There are only a few questions which still require to be addressed”, Mikanadze said. 

Pointing at the importance of the process for the ruling party, Mikanadze claimed the bill would reflect electoral recommendations provided by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. 

The Georgian Dream ruling party says it is doing "its utmost" to ensure a membership candidate status for Georgia. Photo: Parliament of Georgia press office. 

Along with ruling party MPs, the working group meeting involved some opposition legislators, representatives of the International Fund for Electoral Systems and the US Embassy, as well as  the President’s Parliamentary Secretary. 

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, a non-governmental organisation invited to the process, refused to participate in the work in solidarity with the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, an election watchdog excluded from the meetings on decision of the ruling party.

In their previous comments, ruling party officials have accused ISFED of being “politically biased” and highlighted the organisation’s erroneous parallel vote-count data in the 2020 Parliamentary elections, which they said had encouraged the “radical part” of the domestic opposition to spark tension and boycott Parliamentary work. 

Georgia was granted European perspective by the European Council in June and has several months to address conditions related to the country’s judiciary, electoral and other areas in order to receive the EU membership candidate status next year.