Petitions website
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, May 31
After the decision of the government of Georgia, a new webpage will be launched for online petitions – ichange.gov.ge.
The webpage will be ready by the end of June 2017. According to the decree of the Government of May 18 2017, it is necessary to submit a petition by any citizen who is registered with their personal number, phone number and e-mail.
Registration will be mandatory for petition supporters as well. The site will verify the signatories’ authenticity according to their signature, and only the initials of the supporters will appear.
The petition should be submitted in the Georgian language, and it should clearly demonstrate the request. Also, the subject of the petition should be within the competence of the government.
It is also necessary that the petition be submitted by a person older than 18 years and the request should not contain issues which have been already discussed by the government.
Ichange.gov.ge will have moderators who will be able to publish petitions, communicate with the society and prepare reports.
The moderator must review the petition's compliance with the rules in 10 calendar days and the written response should be sent to the petition authors within 2 days.
In order to discuss the petition, at least 10,000 people should support it within 10 days from its publication. In case of a sufficient number of support, a petition will be considered by a special commission which will be composed of representatives of various ministries.
After the recommendation of this commission, the Cabinet should then consider the petition at a government meeting.
Within three calendar months after collecting the signatures, the Government of Georgia shall prepare a written response on petition and publish it at ichange.gov.ge.
According to the Government Administration, the idea of the project was developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The administration of the Government of Georgia and Data Exchange Agency of the Ministry of Justice are involved in the implementation of the site.
