The Parliament of Georgia adopted a new edition of the Election Code with 76 votes against 9.

The Draft specifies certain terms, including those regarding the holding of the elections, referendum/plebiscite within the state borders; video-photo recording regulations in view of personal data protection; the issue of the order concerning the rejection of the consideration of the claim by the Chair of the Commission upon the legal basis; determination of the legal basis for the cooperation of the state bodies and the electoral administrations for facilitation of the organization of the elections; supplementing the list of the legal acts of the electoral administration with the decree of the DEC Chair.

At that, in order to smoothly run the process of staffing district and precinct election commissions during the election period, the issues related to the incompatibility of positions and labor relations of the officials of the election administration of Georgia are changed. Besides, the regulatory norms of voting and summary of election results are unified in the relevant chapters; the procedure for specifying the percentage of votes received by the election subject in the summary protocol is clarified; the norm for election/appointment as a member of the election commission is clarified, as a result of which a person with a conviction, regardless of the type of punishment used, cannot become a member of the election commission; the main text of the Election Code defines the rules for the participation of voters who have been removed from registration based on their place of residence, or whose registration has been declared invalid by the decision of the Agency, or which is registered without specifying an address, or is registered abroad.

According to the legislative initiative, the rules of participation in the elections of voters residing in other states are changed and, like the elections of municipal bodies, the elections of the Parliament of Georgia will be held only within the borders of the state of Georgia.

According to the reporter, Chair of the Procedural Issues Committee, David Matikashvili, the objective of the amendments is to allow immigrants to Georgia on the E-day.

“This reservation aims at the mass arrival of immigrants to Georgia for the elections to share the responsibility related to the sovereignty, state administration for the four upcoming years and the composition of the governmental link”, - he noted.

In order to make the voting process run smoothly, the new draft law changes the rules for evictions on polling day. Besides, in order to conduct the voting process smoothly, the foundations for the formation of the Precinct Election Commission as a special group are established. In addition, the cases when the ballot papers placed in the portable ballot box will be sent to the District Election Commission for a decision will be determined. The terms of election/appointment of the members of the Precinct Election Commission created in exceptional cases are changed; Candidate registration procedures are simplified.

According to D. Matikashvili, up to 100 amendments and changes have been introduced to the Election Code adopted in 2011.

“Accordingly, taking into account the modern challenges, the agenda is to revise the text of the organic law, to combine similar norms, to determine and impose the validity period of the specific regulations in the transitional provisions, as well as to reflect specific principled issues in the law”, - he noted.