Young Lawyers Association Requests to Study Legality of Administrative Resource Expenditure

Georgian Young Lawyers Association requested the Constitutional Court to study the legality of usage administrative resources during election campaign. The Association will bring constitutional suit to the Constitutional Court on March 19 the name of the New Rights and Conservative Party.

GYLA requests to declare the norms envisaged in the Article 761 Part I of the Election Code unconstitutional which enables election entity to use: buildings of the government of Georgia, local self-government or the organization funded from the state budget, as well as communication resources, information service agencies and other equipment and vehicles during election campaign. The part II of the same article enables the public servant to use office car during election campaign.

“We think, this article contradicts the equality and prohibition of discrimination guaranteed under Article 14, of the Constitution of Georgia. The disputable norms result into the politization of the public agencies which finally causes usage of the administrative resources only in favor of the ruling party or group of parties which have access to these resources. This circumstance creates unequal conditions for the election entities and it breaches the principle of equality. The Constitutional Court has power to have positive influence on the election law. However, the Constitutional Court has not discussed our constitutional suit on installment of video-cameras in polling stations yet; we appealed to them on May 13, 2008. We think, leaving the constitutional suits without discussion within the term estimated by the law looses the meaning of the legal mechanism,” said the representatives of the GYLA.

Kakheti News Center