Statement of the Public Movement Multinational Georgia (PMMG) with regard to the open competition for the purpose of selection of the Chairperson as well as the members of the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC)

“Chairman of the board of the PMMG represented the organization in the Competition Commission under the Auspices of the President of Georgia for the purpose of selection of the Chairperson as well as the members of the CEC.

Organization has taken the following decision with regard to 8 July, 2021 competition candidates:

PMMG has supported three candidates to fill in the position of the Chairperson of the CEC: Lili Begiashvili, Giorgi Santuriai and Giorgi Kalandarishvili. As for the members of the CEC, PMMG supported 5 candidates: Ana Mikeladze, Tamara Sartania, Maia Zaridze, Emzar Kakulia and Gia Tsatsanashvili.

PMMG abstained from the evaluation of one candidate due to the conflict of interest in order to secure the impartiality of candidate evaluation process.

It has to be underlined that the Competition Commission has the limited time to take a decision as determined by the law – two days. Moreover, unfortunately, the Commission has limited choice for taking decision.

Taken into account the PMMG functional mandate, the decision on the choice of candidates among the other criteria, was primarily based on the vision of the candidates with regard to the addressing of challenges faced ethnic minority voters. Addressing ethnic minorities’ interests are especially important taken into account the latest developments as well as the proliferation of hate.

Justification of the decision made towards each candidate can be accessed in the protocol of the Competition Commission”.