Election Code Amendments Postponed

Parliament has postponed discussion and voting on amendments to the election code with its third and final hearing for unspecified date, citing the need for further consultations on voter lists.

The discussion and consequent voting on the matter was scheduled for December 25.

MP Levan Vepkhvadze of Christian-Democratic Movement (CDM), a leading party in the parliamentary minority group, told the parliamentary session on December 25, that there were increasing concerns about the reports that the ruling party was taking measures indicating on its intention to manipulate with voter lists in Tbilisi.

The Georgian press has been reporting recently that the ruling party launched registering its activists from the provincial regions in the capital city and by doing so increasing number of its supporters in Tbilisi, which is largely regarded an opposition’s powerbase.

MP Vepkhvadze requested the ruling party to hold consultations on the matter. The parliamentary majority did not object and as a result a consultation was held between Parliamentary Chairman, Davit Bakradze, and lawmakers from the parliamentary minority.

Bakradze said that it was necessary “to remove all the question marks” regarding “artificially inflated” voter lists.

After the meeting with the parliamentary minority lawmakers, Bakradze said that further consultations would be held on December 28 with broader participation of other stakeholders, including of civil society representatives in order to elaborate necessary mechanisms to rule out any manipulation with voter lists.

He also said that for that reason discussion of the amendments to the election code would be postponed unless such mechanisms were developed.

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