On December 11, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) decided not to allow Georgian soldiers serving abroad to vote in the January 5 presidential election.

The CEC decision was split seven to six on a proposal to allow 2000 soldiers in Kosovo and Iraq to vote; the six votes against the proposal came from opposition party representatives. The other seven commission members are ruling party and government appointees.

The proposal needed nine votes to pass.

CEC member Zurab Marakvelidze, an appointee from the opposition Republicans, explained his decision by pointing to a constitutional provision which cancels elections in a situation of martial law.

Ruling party representatives, however, blasted the decision as one intended solely to strip votes away from their presidential candidate.

“Yesterday’s decision was made for one reason only, so that presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili will lose 2000 votes,” stated Davit Bakradze, a state minister and spokesman for Saakashvili’s campaign, at a December 12 press conference. Bakradze said that most military service personnel support Saakashvili.

“These soldiers had their right to vote taken away and were turned into second-class citizens,” he added, according to the online news source civil.ge.

At the press conference with Bakradze were Georgian soldiers who had served abroad.

Bakradze said this decision is a prime example of why his party was opposed to partisan representation on the CEC.

The ruling party will appeal the decision in court, he added.

Saakashvili also criticized the decision, calling it an unfair tactic which placed politics above the country’s dignity.

Tina Khidasheli, a lawyer and leader of the Republicans, repeated arguments that the constitution barred soldiers abroad from voting.

“The Georgian constitution tells us that a person who is participating in a war does not have the right to participate in elections,” she told the Messenger.

The provision in question, under Article 70 of the constitution, specifies that “no election shall be held in case of a state of emergency or martial law.”

CEC chair Levan Tarkhnishvili said on December 12 that he was against the decision, but that the CEC can only reconsider the issue if ordered to by a court.

Tarkhnishvili also dismissed opposition allegations that the voter registration rolls, which currently include 3 372 836 names, are suspiciously large. According to CEC statistics, there were over 3.2 million voters registered for the 2006 local elections.