Noise about Adjara Supreme Election Commission

Maka Malakmadze, Adjara

Representatives of the Adjara based nongovernmental organizations protest the January 29 decision of the Adjara Supreme Council, according to which rule of staffing the Supreme Election Commission (SEC) is to be changed. NGOs claim these amendments are politically motivated and ask the chairman of the Adjara government not to sign the adopted amendments in hurry.

According to legislative changes, SEC and its chairman is to be elected for 6-year term. Besides, chairman of the SEC shall occupy the position only for one term. Based on the adopted law, the acting SEC will have its authority suspended earlier because as soon as the law was published, Adjara government shall announce the competition.

Members of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Transparency International-Georgia think the new amendments will place the election administration under political influence again.

“This bill was adopted for political purposes and aims to sack current members of the SEC rather than to carry out election reform. We request the chairman of the Adjara government not to approve the bill and send it back to the Supreme Council with remarks,” said Irine Urushadze of the Transparency International – Georgia.

“We recommended to publicly discuss the bill. However, only one meeting was held that could not ensure transparency of the bill. And yesterday, they passed the amendments through first hearing in hurry,” said Madona Beridze of the ISFED.

NGO representatives believe adoption of this law was less urgent because SEC will not be active and urgent before the next elections of the Adjara Supreme Council that is scheduled in four years.

SEC Chairman Archil Mikeladze spread statement on their official website (sec.ge) about the adoption of the amendments.

“The process was conducted through neglecting publicity and democratic principles particularly when Parliament of Georgia is about to start working on the completion of the election law in near future. It is noteworthy that initiating of this issue and its adoption in a hurry does not aim at improving the law or creating better election environment. The only purpose is to replace acting members of the SEC by the members of the new government,” Archil Mikeladze wrote.