New election code finalised

After approving the new election code on December 27 the document has now become available to view. The main changes, both those issues which were under debate and those on which some agreement was reached, have now come into force.

The new code has only slightly redesigned the next Parliament’s structure by scrapping two majoritarian seats from Akhalgori and Liakhvi single-mandate constituencies - both were under Tbilisi’s control in breakaway South Ossetia before the August 2008 war. The number of seats allocated through the party-list contest will increase by two at the expense of scrapping two majoritarian constituencies.

As a result, in the next Parliament 73 seats will go to majoritarian MPs elected in 73 single-mandate constituencies and the remaining 77 seats will be allocated proportionally under the party-list contest among political parties and election blocs which clear the 5% threshold.

The code introduces the new rule of allocating seats under the party-list contest. Any political party or electoral bloc will automatically endorse six of its members for the next Parliament if it clears the 5% threshold; so if a party receives 5% or more but if it translates into having only one or two MPs, this party, under the new rule, will anyway be able to endorse six of its members in the Parliament at the expense of taking seats from other parties that have better results in the elections. It means that clearing the 5% threshold will automatically give a party or bloc the opportunity to establish a faction within the parliament, which requires having at least six lawmakers.

As for independent candidates the election code re-introduced a provision allowing an independent candidate to run for a majoritarian MP seat, as well as for City Council (Sakrebulo) membership and Tbilisi mayoral office in local elections.

One more innovation of the new election code is removing the blanket ban on the voting right of prisoners. As recommended by the Venice Commission, for the first time the election code will allow convicts serving a prison term for “less grave offences” to cast ballots in the elections and referendum; the criminal code defines “less grave” crimes as those for which no more than a five-year prison term has been envisaged as punishment.

Over one of the most debatable issues, referring to the voters lists, a cloud of disagreement remains. The Central Election Commission will still have to announce the total number of voters prior to the elections (the provision was not part of the initial draft).

A state-funded commission, chaired by a representative from the opposition New Rights Party, which is in charge of verifying the accuracy of the voters list, will have August 1, 2012, as a deadline to complete its work by. The commission has been boycotted by most of the non-parliamentary opposition.

The code obliges broadcasters to set equal prices on political ads for every political party. The broadcasters will still be obliged to allocate 90 seconds of free airtime every three hours for ‘qualified political parties’ and the public broadcaster - 60 seconds per every hour.

As for funding and campaigning, the election code still allows provincial governors and heads of regional districts to take part in campaigning. Foreign citizens are banned from taking part in campaigning in favour of any political party.

According to the election code, Secretary of the National Security Council Giga Bokeria will be authorized to establish an inter-agency task force before July 1, 2012, with a purpose of “preventing and reacting to violations of electoral legislature by public officials”.

Majority representatives have positively evaluated the election code, calling it almost ideal and underlining that all the main recommendations and views have been reflected in the legislation. The opposition however can see no vital changes in the law which will impose real change in the election environment.

As representative of Young Lawyer’s Association Lela Taliuri told The Messenger, the principle recommendations of the organization were not taken into account, “Mainly technical issues have been foreseen in the law,” Taliuri stated, explaining that their principle recommendations corresponded with the Venice Commission’s recommendations. “One of the main recommendations, relating to the system and the sharing of voters in election districts, was rejected. At the same time, our major recommendation was the dissociation of elected and appointed officials and their participation in the election process. Based on the law, governors and some other officials have a right to take part in a pre election campaign without restrictions, which we disapprove of.” As well as that the representative mentioned that GYLA had recommendations concerning terms of appellation, soldiers’ participation in elections, special election districts and so on. “All those recommendations were aimed at the eradication of the faults that exist in the current system, however unfortunately they were not taken into consideration. As for the future perspective GYLA is going to work on the changes in the law on political unions as according to Taliuri “there remains a lot of obscurity [in the legislation]”.

Based on a senior consultant of a PR and marketing company Soso Galumashvili, the authorities have taken foreign recommendations into account. “And I am sure that it is still possible for there are to be introduced a lot of changes in the election code as the international community demands a refining of electoral legislation, which will have to be taken into consideration as the Georgian Government currently requires both internal and foreign support.”

As analyst Malkhaz Chemia told The Messenger, the new election code is too discriminative and only benefits the ruling party. “There are a lot of changes, like the points regarding bribe taking and use of administrative materials, which reveal how discriminative the environment is,” Chemia said, and mentioned that in such a reality and in the frame of such an election code, it will be too difficult for the opposition to achieve a positive result. “They should closely collaborate with the international community, with the Venice Commission for positive, fair changes to the code, otherwise success will really be too difficult to achieve.”