Parliament Approves Amendments to Election Code
The Parliament approved amendsments to the election conde, with its second hearing, held on April 22, envisaging changes in the rule of composition of the Central Election Commission (CEC) and lower level election administrations.
According to the new rule, the President will propose all seven members of the Central Election Commission (CEC), including the Chairman, to the Parliament for approval. The nominees should not be affiliated with a political party and should be certified election officials selected through an open competition.
The CEC will appoint a seven-member district election commission, while the chairman of a nine-member precinct will be appointed by the district commission.
The rule of composition of precinct election commissions differs from that one applied to high level election administrations. Three members of a precinct commission will be appointed by a district election commission, while the other six members will be selected from those political parties which gained the best results during the latest parliamentary elections in Georgia.
The National Movement ruling party and two opposition parties ? the New Rights and Labor Party – will have the right to nominate their representatives to the precinct election commission, as they garnered most of the votes in the March 28, 2004 parliamentary elections.
The parliamentary opposition slammed this new rule for composing election commissions, describing it as ?a one-party? election administration.
The Conservatives, the Rightist Opposition and the Republicans proposed an alternative rule of composition of election administrations to the Parliament, envisaging the composition of commissions on a parity basis by the representatives of the political parties. However, as anticipated, the parliamentary majority rejected the proposal.
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