Aleksi Bezhanishvili
It was difficult for President Mikheil Saakashvili to nominate the candidate for the chairperson of the Central Election Commission. On January 11, at the press-conference spokesperson of the president Manana Manjgaladze stated that Mikheil Saakashvili will nominate the candidates on January 12 and opposition members of the CEC will discuss the issue of those candidates. However, in the morning of January 12 president had not nominated the candidates yet. Parliamentary secretary of the president Zurab Dekanoidze clarified that the president would nominate the candidates by the end of the day.
“First of all, the president breached the law; second, he requested the parliament to prolong the term for the nomination of candidates. Although initially the term was two-week-long, on January 11 Saakashvili’s spokesperson stated that the opposition had 4 days to choose one of the three candidates nominated by the president. The problem is that the opposition will not have much to choose,” assessed the newspaper “Resonance” the situation about the CEC.
The president was to nominate the candidates of the CEC chairperson on January 8. In accordance to the new edition of the law, only opposition members of the CEC have right to elect the nominated candidates.
A leader of the Republic Party Tina Khidasheli said in her interview with the newspaper “Resonance” that president breached the law for certain reasons – the president did not expect the NGO sector to offer him the candidate like Eka Siradze. Members of the parliamentary majority said in private conversations that all this process, beginning from the violation of the law by the president till requesting the prolonging of the deadline, is connected with the failure to find suitable candidate. Reportedly, Eka Siradze, nominated by majority NGOs, is not appreciated by the government; however, they fail to find the candidate acceptable for them as well.
Eka Siradze represents “Fair Elections” and is a qualified candidate for the election procedures. This qualification is one of the main criteria for the selection of the CEC Chairperson.
Eka Siradze stated at the meeting of the candidates for the CEC chairperson with opposition parties in the hotel “Davit”: “I do not want to be viewed as a party. Regardless the fact I will be a chairperson or not, I will continue my work in the field of elections and will be fair in my work. I want the society to see me as an impartial person and not a representative of any political power. I will never act in favor of any political party because the chairperson of the CEC is a public official and should be far from the politics.”
On January 12, special session was scheduled in the parliament and president’s initiative on prolonging the deadline for the selection of the CEC chairpersons shall be discussed. Experts think this initiative was necessary to abolish the violation of the law by the president in order to make the following process compliant with the law and to remove all doubts on the legality of the selection of new chairperson.
At the special session the amendments will be introduced only to the terms of nominating the candidates by the president and approving those candidates by the CEC. According to the current Code, president had to nominate the candidates before January 8. However, based on the legislative initiative of the president, this term was postponed before January 12 and consequently, the deadline to approve the candidate by opposition members of the CEC shall be postponed as well. According to the changes, the meeting of the CEC to appoint the chairperson shall be scheduled no later than January 14.
They spoke about the supposed candidates of the chairperson of the CEC in the lobby interviews of the parliament. According to the current information, the president will nominate Otar Sichinava, Zurab Kharatishvili and Levan Tarkhnishvili.
Those three people are among 14 people from whom the president has to select 3 candidates on January 12. In order to nominate the candidates of the CEC chairperson, 14 candidates were mentioned as a result of consultations between the president and NGOs.
It is interesting that News Agency “Pirveli” reported about nominating Zurab Kharatishvili, Otar Sichinava and Levan Tarkhnishvili a week ago. That means, it was already discussed in lobby interviews of the government.
Zurab Kharatishvili work in the field of financial-audit at the CEC. He was monitoring financial agreements of political parties. Organization “Alpe” nominated him as a candidate.
Otar Sichinava was nominated by the New Generation –New Initiative; he is former judge of the Constitutional Court.
Both “Alpe” and New Generation-New Initiative are pro-governmental organizations. In the lobby interviews of the parliament it was mentioned that president will nominate Levan Tarkhnishvili, interim CEC chairperson as a third candidate.
There are suppositions in the opposition parties that nomination of Levan Tarkhnishvili among the three candidates is kind of blackmailing towards the opposition parties. In doing so, the government wants to tell to the opposition members of the CEC that unless they vote for Sichinava or Kharatishvili, the parliament will approve Tarkhnishvili on the position.
Leader of the Conservative Party Kakha Kukava stated that in the afternoon of January 12 parliamentary opposition parties will spread statement on the current situation about the CEC.
Prepared based on Interpressnews and News Agency “Pirveli”
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