Georgian Dream ready to discuss issue of holding safe elections

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Wednesday, May 6

“No threats are posed at holding parliamentary elections on October 31st under a new system,” Kobakhidze says.

On March 8th, representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition signed an agreement paving the way to adopting an electoral reform for October 2020 parliamentary elections.

The non-governmental organisation Transparency International Georgia (TIG) believes that the issue of holding safe parliamentary elections in Georgia should be discussed.

The organisation issued a statement on the matter, emphasising that due to the pandemic of Covid-19, resolving the virus related problems is vital and health and right now socio-economic issues is what public attention is mainly focused on, however, the issues that are necessary for the democratic development of the country in the long run should not be forgotten.

Among them TIG names the elections, which are to be held in about 6 months, and it is still unclear exactly what system country is pursuing, what kind of changes will be made to the Electoral Code and how the ruling team intends to make constitutional and other legislative changes, since during the state of emergency, constitution cannot be changed and party hasn’t provided public with specific plans on this issue.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that it seems that the fight against the pandemic will continue for the remaining months before the elections, and even on election day, in all probability, all the restrictions needed to contain the epidemic will not be lifted. TIG states it’s important that the government takes concrete steps to dispel the existing ambiguity.

TIG says pre-election campaigns and holding parliamentary elections on 31st of October are important issues. NGO notes that discussions regarding this topic are underway in many countries and several methods of participating in elections are considered, including remote voting (electronically or by mail), redistribution of the voting process over several days of elections, and more.

It’s noteworthy that in some cases, elections have been postponed during the pandemic, for example from February 28th to April 30th this year, with at least 52 countries postponing elections and referendums at various levels, including 17 general national elections or referendums; however, 19 countries still holding scheduled elections.

NGO notes that according to epidemiologists’ predictions the scale of the pandemic and the threat posed by it will be significantly reduced in October, however, some limitations are likely to remain.

TIG names multiple steps that have to be followed in order to conduct safe votes: Start working on all possible scenarios to determine appropriate measures to ensure a safe environment for elections with the involvement of epidemiologists, election administrations, political parties and public organizations; Develop appropriate normative acts for holding elections in conditions of temporary restrictions, specifically writing regulations for organizing all necessary procedures; If necessary, supply the equipment and machinery for creating a safe environment for election administration and voters in terms of restrictions; Give appropriate training to the members of the election commissions; Develop the rules of election observation.

TIG calls the executive and legislative authorities on this issue to start consultations with the Central Election Commission, political parties, elections of local civil society organizations, representatives of friendly countries and international organizations.

The Georgian Dream expressed its readiness to follow TIG’s call and start discussing how they will ensure safe 2020 parliamentary elections. According to Irakli Kobakhidze, Executive Secretary of the Georgian Dream, the discussion should be held freely on any topic with a broad involvement.

Kobakhidze said that so far it’s not defined what the future developments will look like, however, there’s some basis for optimistic prognosis that elections will be held on 31st of October. He also commented on the electronic ballot box, expressing doubts that appropriate infrastructure can be arranged within the time left, adding that the open discussions involving opposition, NGOs and international partners, will be held regarding other mechanisms.

Former speaker of the parliament also talked about the terms for amendments to the constitution and election code, noting that the discussion of amendments will continue as soon as the state of emergency is abolished and the whole process will be finished by the end of July, regardless of when the pandemic is defeated. “Therefore, it is not a problem to hold elections under the new system in October 2020,” Kobakhidze said.