The Co-Chairs of the Working Group on Electoral Reform, Shalva Papuashvili and Levan Ioseliani held the joint briefing stating that the relevant bill envisaging the electoral changes is expected to be initiated today.

“As of the February 4 briefing by the Georgian Dream and the Citizens, you were informed about the set-up of the Working Group as an initial step of the progress of the Memorandum between our parties. The spirit of the Memorandum was then shared by the European Socialists. Today, being the other day of the implementation of what the document enshrines, we intend to submit the relevant law proposal to the Parliament as a result of cooperation with local NGOs and our EU partners”, - Sh. Papuashvili stated and estimated the draft law as a precondition of fundamental changes to the electoral system.

As the speaker noted, the reform envisages:

Increasing the share of proportionally elected members in municipal councils. In particular, in self-governing cities - Tbilisi, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Poti, Batumi - there will be 4 proportionally elected members for each single-mandate member, while in other municipalities there will be two proportionally elected members for each majoritarian member.
The central and district levels of the election administration will be staffed with 8 professional and 9 party members, on a parity basis.
Electronic voter registration and electronic counting of ballot papers will be introduced.
It will be prohibited to draw up an amendment protocol by the Commission after sealing the documentation.
It will be prohibited for the precinct Commissions to draw up an amendment protocol without opening the documentation and counting the ballot papers.
Regardless of whether there will be a complaint, five precincts from 73 will be randomly identified to be recounted. A total of 365 precincts will be re-counted for the elections, which is 10% of the total number of precincts.
The deadlines for filing and reviewing complaints will be increased.
It will be possible to file a lawsuit electronically.
It will be possible to appeal the refusal of the CEC to draw up a report on the violation in court.
It is prohibited to gather people within a 100-meter radius from polling stations and to register voters.
The circle of public servants who are prohibited from participating in pre-election agitation will be expanded.
It will be prohibited to gather/use public servants for the pre-election agitation.

According to him, the only issue of the Memorandum that remains open at this stage is the election threshold.

"We are ready to consider lowering the electoral threshold from the 5% provided to 3%, but this requires the active work of the 113 MPs needed to amend the Constitution", - Sh. Papuashvili remarked.

As the Co-Chair of the Group noted, there is still a period of about two months before the bill is adopted by the Parliament with III reading.

"During this period, we plan to work with the Working Group to refine the document, and in addition, we will send this draft to the Venice Commission and ODIHR, so that they can present their conclusion. I once again call on the parties that refuse to participate in the parliamentary work to put aside their personal and party interests, enter the Parliament and take part in resolving this important issue", - Sh. Papuashvili added.

According to L. Ioseliani, today is a historic day, because it became possible to reach an agreement and develop a document that will actually make the elections in Georgia much more credible and understandable for the citizens.

"The most important thing is that Aleko Elisashvili and I believe that we have practically fulfilled our task, for which we entered the Parliament, because with these changes, the election day will be much more transparent and better than it has been before", - L. Ioseliani stated.

According to him, these changes envisage the most important - the introduction of electronic counting machines. At the first stage in some precincts and then throughout Georgia; Registration in the form of a fingerprint, which means that the problem of "carousels" will be finally closed; Compulsory recount of 10% of polling stations, which means that about 365 precincts in Georgia will be recounted on a mandatory basis.

"Such a recount, which will take place not in one or two months, but within a maximum of 6 days after the elections, will ensure this process. This and all the other changes envisaged by this bill are truly revolutionary and, most importantly, will enable new political forces, new political leaders, to participate in the political process. According to these changes, the threshold in Tbilisi and other self-governing cities will be 2.5%, where the ratio will be one to four in favor of the proportional system, and in the rest of Georgia the threshold will be reduced to 3%", - the Co-Chair noted.

As L. Ioseliani noted, elections should never be the possibility of confrontation and political crisis in the country.

"Elections should no longer be a cause of political crisis. This is the main task making us enter the Parliament and sign the memorandum, which will be initiated today and will soon become law. We have two months of deliberations ahead, which does not rule out further improvement of this document. We know that the non-governmental sector still has some considerations here. The involvement of the representatives of the diplomatic corps in this process will continue. We will wait for the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations. On the whole, we will make this draft a law only when there is a full consensus on this document not only between us and the Georgian Dream, but in the society as a whole. We have to make it clear to everyone that these changes are really turning points for the perspective of our country because elections are the cornerstone of democracy", - the Co-Chair stated.

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