Media Names Former MP as Possible CEC Chair

Vakhtang Khmaladze, a former lawmaker, has emerged as a possible compromise candidate for the Central Election Commission (CEC) chairmanship post, Georgian media sources have reported.

Khmaladze himself said an opposition politician, whom he declined to identify, had asked him whether he would be willing to take the position if offered it. “My answer was, that first of all agreement should be achieved among the opposition and then between them and the authorities. I would not have the moral right to refuse,” Khmaladze told the Georgian daily Rezonansi. “If I refused, the opposition would have to find a new candidate, which would take time, which in itself would hurt the opposition, as there is a tight timeframe before the parliamentary elections.”

Although opposition politicians have said that Khmaladze’s candidacy would be acceptable, the matter hasn’t actually been decided even among oppsition parties, never mind between the opposition and the authorities. There has been no formal response from the government.

Khmaladze, who worked on the election code while in Parliament, was once nominated as CEC chair. Like today, the CEC chairmanship was highly disputed, with then President Shevardnadze’s ruling party and the opposition having to accept OSCE and Council of Europe mediation ahead of the 2003 parliamentary elections. Three nominees – Davit Usupashvili, then prominent civil society activist and now leader of the opposition Republican Party; Khmaladze and Nana Devdariani – were put forward. Shevardnadze selected the latter.