The first meeting over electoral reform underway in the Parliament. NGOs, the diplomatic corps, and the Central Election Commission (CEC) representatives are discussing the electoral reform.
The meeting attendees are also talking over the Memorandum of Understanding on Electoral Reform signed between the ruling Georgian Dream and opposition Citizens parties.
Electoral Reform consists of more than ten items and provides for changes and refinement of procedures in a number of areas, including:
The rules for the composition of the Central, District and Precinct Election Commissions, including the CEC Chairperson, will be changed.
Norms on the use of administrative resources will be revised in line with OSCE/ODIHR recommendations. Also, the norms related to the handling of election disputes will be revised in order to ensure timely, transparent and proper resolution of disputes.
In the big cities of Georgia, self-government elections will be held in a ratio of four to one between proportional and majoritarian electoral systems. In other municipalities the ratio is determined individually, with a ratio of at least two to one in favor of a proportional system.
Most importantly, electronic technologies will be introduced, which eliminates both any manipulation and human error, and permanently excludes the 30-year-old problem of unbalanced protocols.