The Parliament discussed the Draft Election Code for the II reading and adopted it with 81 votes. The amendment stipulates the election of the Chairperson and members of the Central Election Commission.

The Draft was introduced to the session by the Chair of the Education, Science and Youth Affairs Committee, Givi Mikanadze. As the Draft envisages, the rule and quorum for the election of the CEC Chair and the so-called professional members shall be re-modified, namely, the quorum is established as 3/5 of votes.

The Draft also envisages 3 stages of the election of the CEC Chair and members – 90 votes are necessary at the first voting and if 90 votes cannot be obtained, then the CEC Chair and members will be elected by 76 votes. Certain candidates shall have the right to appeal for 76 votes twice, and the candidates elected by 76 votes shall acquire eligibility with the term of 5 years.

If the Parliament fails to give 76 votes and fails to elect the candidates at all stages, the issue shall be delegated to the President for resolution. Pursuant to the Draft, the President, within the term of one week upon the voting in the Parliament, shall receive the list of the candidates and the competition documents and shall enjoy the authority to, within the term of one week upon the receipt, appoint selected the candidates out of the list with the term of 5 years.

The amendments introduced to the electoral legislation and the Rules of Procedure remain valid, envisaging that the Speaker of the Parliament shall call the competition instead of the President and submit the candidates to the Parliament.

The amendment annuls the position of the Deputy Chair of the CEC, which was purposed to be occupied by one of the party members with the opposition quote.

After the consideration of the Draft for the I reading in 2023, it was submitted to the Venice Commission for the opinion; the Venice Commission submitted its opinion to the Parliament, however, as G. Mikanadze elucidated, the opinion is devoid of the legal arguments.

As he highlighted, the changes to the composition of the CEC resulted only in the election of the CEC Chair and members with a term of 6 months. According to him, the 6-month model fails to ensure the independence of the institution.

“Our question was simple - in which country the model offered to us is applied, envisaging the election of the CEC Chair and members for 6 months and how the officials appointed with 6 months can meet the independence principles compared to the persons appointed with 5 years. The answer was crystal clear that no such model is applied in any of the countries. None of the arguments were provided to us about the grounds for the establishment of this model in Georgia. The 2-year practice revealed that this model fails”, - he stated.