Forcing a voter to violate the secrecy of the ballot to become punishable by up to 3 years in prison

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Thursday, August 27

Discussions on the changes initiated on the 26th of August will begin in September.

Kapanadze says the government's initiative to amend the election and criminal codes is an attempt to show international observers how the government limits any kind of influence on voters.

At the initiative of the Georgian Dream, the Election Code will be amended and strict sanctions will be imposed on cases of voter coercion, intimidation, and violation of the secrecy of the ballot. The Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Archil Talakvadze stated about it at the briefing held at the office of the ruling party.

According to him, the Election Code will indicate that in case of such an action, a person will be held criminally liable, and relevant changes will be made in the Criminal Code as well.

In particular, according to Talakvadze, intimidation of voters, or coercion committed in various ways, for violating the secrecy of the ballot will result in a fine, or house arrest for a term of 6 months to 2 years or imprisonment for up to 3 years.

According to the Speaker, this will give more confidence to the citizens in the election process and, at the same time, will end the speculations of the part of the opposition that, on the one hand, did not support democratic electoral changes in Parliament and, on the other hand, continued to criticize and discredit the government and the election process.

The Parliament of Georgia adopted the amendments to the Election Code in the third reading on July 2.

According to Sergi Kapanadze, the head of European Georgia's election headquarters, the government's initiative to amend the election and criminal codes is an attempt to show international observers how the government limits any kind of influence on voters. He said that all this was already punishable and it seems that they are trying to appear white and fluffy with international observers.

“The main problem is how they execute this law and towards whom. Until now, there has not been a single case where any acts of intimidation, bribery, or coercion of voters by Georgian Dream officials or public servants have been punished,” Kapanadze said.

According to him, the problem will be the execution of this decision in the future.