TI Georgia, ISFED leave consultations to select members for electoral commission’s advisory group
TI Georgia and ISFED have left consultations to select members for a new advisory group of the Georgian Central Election Commission because of other organisations involved in the selection process. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) have left consultations to select members for the Georgian Central Election Commission’s advisory group for election disputes.
TI Georgia and ISFED say that other organisations which have been invited to select members of the advisory group ‘can not ensure the selection of qualified and reliable people.’
They say that the CEC initially stated that observer organisations should select members of the advisory group by consensus.
However, on August 6, the CEC amended the resolution stating that if the members of the advisory group could not be selected by consensus, they still would have a second chance.
During the second vote, candidates can be selected by the support of at least ⅔ of the observer organisations. This change made it possible for the CEC advisory group to be fully staffed by observers with a dubious reputation,” TI Georgia and ISFED say.
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@isfed_official and @TIGeorgiaGeo are leaving the process of staffing the @cecgovge Advisory Group.
— ISFED (@isfed_official) August 8, 2021
List of the invited organizations and the decision-making procedure can not ensure the selection of qualified and reliable people by consensus.
https://t.co/nHyqdZmCbt
According to the June 2021 amendments to the Election Code of Georgia, within 10 days from the day of calling the elections, an advisory group of CEC with at least nine and not more than 15 members should be formed to submit recommendations on election disputes to the CEC.
The group should be composed of a representative of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia and international or local experts selected by the election observer organisations.
Per the CEC resolution no less than seven and no more than 11 candidates for the group should be submitted to the CEC by local observer organisations.
The CEC invited TI Georgia, ISFED and all local observer organisations that were registered with the CEC during the last three general elections to select the members of the group.
During the first meeting, we were informed that 15 such observer organisations expressed a desire to participate in this process. However, the credibility, good reputation, operations, and financial transparency of the vast majority of these organisations can be seriously questioned,” TI Georgia and ISFED say, adding that many of the organisations had received negative feedback from international and local observer organisations.
Both organisations say that they will continue observing the process.
The Central Election Commission has responded that the organisations’ decision is ‘regrettable’ and that TI Georgia’s ISFED’s participation in the process is important.