CoE Calls for Electoral Reforms
Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) adopted at the session on January 28 recommendations developed by the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Monitoring Committee calling for Georgia’s new leadership to reform the election system for partial parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 28.
“The Assembly asks the Georgian authorities to adopt without delay a number of measures, which must be fully implemented when the forthcoming parliamentary elections are held,” the recommendations read.
The Assembly called Georgian leadership for passing “amendment of the Electoral Code and of the other electoral legislation and regulations, in full co-operation with the Council of Europe experts.”
The PACE also recommends to “modify the composition of the Central Election Commission and of the election commissions at lower levels, in order to promote the principle of balanced, fair and equal representation of all political forces.”
The list of recommendations also includes simplifying the voting procedures, ensuring a clear segregation between governmental structures and the electoral authorities, and introducing a principle that the latter must be completely impartial.
“Revision of the voters lists, with the creation as soon as possible of a single, centralized and computerized register of electors, and the final ending of the practice of registering voters’ names on supplementary lists on election day itself, a practice which entails a considerable risk of fraud.”
The Assembly considers that the parliamentary elections of 28 March 2004 are likely to be “a genuine test of the Georgian authorities’ capacity to organize truly democratic, free, fair, transparent and competitive elections.”
