Constitutional Court Upheld Human Rights Center’s Constitutional Suit

The Constitutional Court upheld the constitutional suit of Human Rights Center about declaring one of arguable provisions in the Article 116 Part VII of the Election Code of Georgia non-constitutional.

According to the arguable provisions in the Article 116 Part VII of the Election Code of Georgia, alongside the list of supporting voters independent majoritarian candidate shall provide the Central Election Commission with the bank notification that he/she has 5 000 lari deposit in it.

According to the Article 116 Part VII of the Organic Law of Georgia Georgian Election Code”, “the money allocated on the mentioned deposit will be completely returned to the candidate if she/he gains at least 10% of votes in the relevant elections. Otherwise, the money will be transferred to the state budget of Georgia.” Part XII of the same article states: “the chairperson of the district election commission will not register the candidate for the parliamentary elections of Georgia if: …the requirements and terms of Part VII are breached.”

So, if a candidate of relevant election subject does not provide the bank notification on 5 000 GEL deposit, he will not be registered.

The law envisaged this particular provision for only one election subject – majoritarian candidate named by the initiative group of voters. The same requirement was not envisaged for other majoritarian candidates or election subjects like political party or an election block.

Human Rights Center represented Besik Adamia at the Constitutional Court, who was a majoritarian candidate during the parliamentary election and law required him to pay 5000 GEL.  Human Rights Center believes that establishment of similar obligations for equal election subjects participating in the election, contradicts the Article 14 of the Constitution of Georgia which guarantees just equality principle before the law.

Non-constitutional norm will be annulled as soon as it is published. The decision is in force from the moment it was publicly announced at the trial. As soon as the full version of the judgment is published, Human Rights Center will hold a press-conference on the issue.

Human Rights Center