President to Appoint One Before September 3
(Tbilisi, August 31, 2003, Civil Georgia) – On August 31 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in consultation with the Council of Europe (CoE), submitted to President Shevardnadze three candidates – Davit Usupashvili, Vakhtang Khmaladze and Nana Devdariani, for the Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairmanship post for approval.
Nana Devdariani is the Public Defender of Georgia and was a member of the Socialists Party before her appointment to the post. The Socialists Party is in the Presidential-backed election alliance at the moment.
Vakhtang Khmaladze is a Member of Parliament. He was actively engaged in the development of the new election code. The Industrialists Party nominated him for the post of CEC Chairman. Many human rights advocacy NGOs supported his candidature.
Davit Usupashvili is a senior legal and policy adviser of IRIS Georgia to implement the USAID Rule of Law program. He has a master’s degree in international development policy from Duke University. He was a member of the Central Election Commission and chairman of its legal department from 1990-92, chief legal advisor to the president of Georgia in 1992-1994, and chairman of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association during1995-1997.
On August 27-30, Ambassador Liviu Bota, representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, and Plamen Nikolov, representative of the CoE Secretary General held extensive consultations with political parties, government representatives, civil society organizations, diplomatic missions, and international organizations to draw up and discuss a list of potential candidates. OSCE and CoE representatives met daily with President Shevardnadze to inform him of progress.
These consultations followed a public appeal for nominations, which resulted in the submission of 25 candidacies. During the discussions, several further names emerged for consideration.
A set of criteria, established by the OSCE and CoE representatives to assist them in assessing the merits of the candidates, included: “broad political and public acceptability; organizational skills necessary to establish a nationwide election structure within the required timeframe; impartiality and a commitment to transparency. In the view of all those who participated in the consultations, none of the candidates fully met all of these criteria,” a letter to President Shevardnadze sent by Liviu Bota and Plamen Nikolov on August 31 reads.
“I think OSCE and CoE representatives made a wise decision. It is very important that President Shevardnadze knows all of us very well,” MP Vakhtang Khmaladze and candidate for the CEC chairman’s post told Civil Georgia on August 31.
“We worked closely with him [Eduard Shevardnadze] in the early 1990s when Shevardnadze was a head of state. During that period I was a parliament member, as well as Nana Devdariani, Davit Usupashvili was a chief legal advisor to Shevardnadze,” Khmaladze said. “To say the truth I would like to see Mr. Usupashvili in CEC Chairman’s post,” he added.
Rusudan Beridze, deputy secretary of the national security council of Georgia is not on the shortlist of candidates submitted to the President. Shevardnadze himself supported Beridze’s candidature.
“I support Beridze, however as far as I know opposition is against her because she is considered a pro-governmental person. However [in case she appears on the shortlist] I do not want to make a decision, that will cause confrontation with the opposition parties,” said Shevardnadze on August 29 while commenting on the candidates for the CEC Chairmanship post.
President Shevardnadze has to appoint one of the candidates proposed by the OSCE and CoE before September 3.
The President also has a right to reject all the candidates and refuse to appoint the CEC Chairman. In this case, the 14-member CEC has to elect the Chairman with two-thirds of the votes.
By Giorgi Sepashvili, Civil Georgia
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