Not a single legal argument is presented in the report of the Venice Commission regarding the election changes - without legal arguments, it is not justified to write down that we should return to the scheme of April 19. Such a statement made today MP from the Georgian Dream, Givi Mikanadze, while talking about the joint report of the Venice Commission and ODIHR regarding the draft amendments to the Election Code and the Rules of Procedures of the Parliament of Georgia.

“The Venice Commission, without legal argumentation, says that we should return to the situation regarding the election of the election administration as it is written in the April 19 agreement.

We have a lot of questions regarding the report, because we have explained the process in detail and argumentatively.

We explained to them in detail why we made the decision to transfer the selection process of election administration representatives from the president to the parliament. The president had brought the process to a dead end, and the non-governmental organizations had made a demarche so as not to participate in the presidential commission. The process could not go forward due to the fact that not even one person had submitted an application for the competition announced for 5 months due to distrust.

A new election system is being introduced, which provides for voting through electronic devices, the CEC needs to have a proper administration. For this, changes were needed, including more transparency and inclusiveness.

In this regard, no legal argument has been presented at all, and it is being discussed that the focus should be made on the scheme of April 19”, - said Givi Mikanadze.