election reform

Georgian gov’t updating legislation ahead of local election

By | February 10th, 2014|Categories: Elections, News|Tags: , , |

Speaker of Parliament Davit Usupashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–In a week the government in Georgia will decide whether to follow recommendations and proposals made by the non-parliamentary opposition and non-governmental organizations about amendments to the Election Code. Speaker of Parliament Davit Usupashvili […]

Ivanishvili government overhauling election legislation

By | January 25th, 2013|Categories: Elections '12-'13, News|Tags: |

Zakaria Kutsnashvili, member of parliament for Georgian Dream. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch — The new government has started an overhaul of the election legislation. A group in parliament will prepare a draft of amendments, but some experts argue that the non-governmental sector and parties outside parliament should also be involved in the […]

US embassy’s statement

By | December 29th, 2011|Categories: In brief, News|Tags: |

The US Embassy has released a statement regarding the changes to the Georgian Electoral Code and the legislation regarding campaign financing. DF Watch publishes it unchanged: “The United States supports free, fair and reliable elections in Georgia. Our attention is focused on the electoral process. We do not support any specific party or candidate. In this [...]

NGOs warn: unfair election system

By | December 28th, 2011|Categories: Elections, News|Tags: |

TBILISI, DFWatch - Tuesday Georgia's new election system should have been passed in parliament, but the package of bills was stopped in the last minute by a group of rights activists, who warned of potential problems. The groups are sounding the alarm that the new election system does not create a level playing field. Several experts [...]

Last chance to adjust election system

By | December 23rd, 2011|Categories: In brief, News|Tags: |

TBILISI, DFWatch - Today several laws are up for revision which will change Georgia's election system and set the ground rules for the parliamentary election in October 2012. This will be the second hearing of the changes in the constitution, the electoral code and the law on political associations. Included in the bill are new rules [...]

Rubin: Georgia should listen to CoE advice

By | December 17th, 2011|Categories: News|Tags: , , |

TBILISI, DFWatch - Eric Rubin, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs says that the United States supports Georgia’s aspirations towards integration with Euro Atlantic structures and NATO and is working on forming a common position regarding Georgia among the alliance member countries at NATO’s Chicago summit next May. But before the [...]

Rules drawn up for 2012 election

By | December 10th, 2011|Categories: News|Tags: |

TBILISI, DFWatch - Gradually the ground rules for next year’s election are being laid as parliament has begun a new round of discussion about election reform. It comes earlier than expected, because recommendations from the Council of Europe (CoE) came sooner than the December 17 deadline, in the form of a working draft published on the [...]

Oops! Gov’t backtracks on election reform

By | November 11th, 2011|Categories: Legal reform, News|Tags: |

TBILISI, DFWatch - The government is retracting on several of its eleventh-hour changes to the Georgian election law, but  stands firm on not allowing video surveillance in polling stations and defends the right of governors to participate in the election campaign. This emerged Friday in comments made by a member of the editorial group which has [...]

Election reform is postponed

By | October 30th, 2011|Categories: Elections, News|Tags: |

TBILISI, DFWatch - The election reform has been postponed for two months. It should have ended by the end of October, but is delayed until the end of December. The government explains the delay with the need to wait until the Venice Commission publishes its final conclusion. A few days ago, Venice Commission chairman Tomas Markert, [...]

CoE criticizes proposed new election law

By | October 28th, 2011|Categories: News|Tags: |

TBILISI, DFWatch - The Venice Commission has asked the government to change the proposed new Electoral Code, after going through all the issues envisaged in the proposed new law, both things that were agreed with the opposition and the ruling party's eleventh-hour "surprises". Council of Europe envoys made their critical stance clear at a special briefing [...]

New law kills businessman’s plan B

By | October 26th, 2011|Categories: News|Tags: , |

TBILISI, DFWatch - The government is going to take away financier Bidzina Ivanishvili's last chance to enter Georgian politics, according to a group of experts and NGOs who have seen the details of a new proposal that will make it illegal for organizations and businesses to fund political parties. The proposal comes out of the Ministry [...]

If Georgia wants to have fair elections…

By | October 24th, 2011|Categories: Opinion|Tags: |

A number of circumstances determine fairness of elections in Georgia. Among them are the electoral system, transparency of political party financing, the scale of the use of administrative resources for the purpose of party campaigning, accuracy of the voters’ list, the level of civic education, the existence of free media, independent judiciary, active civil society and [...]

Improving the election environment in Georgia

By | October 15th, 2011|Categories: Opinion|Tags: |

Georgian society has a history of discussions, disputes, criticism and disagreements around the election environment and election legislation. As an new election approaches, the Parliament of Georgia starts a process of amending the Election Code, and as a rule, a few months prior to the elections significant amendments are made to the legislation. Again the county [...]