GYLA submitted remarks to the Parliament on the reform of the electoral legislation

The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association has submitted its conclusion to the Parliament on the draft amendments to the electoral legislation. The organization positively assesses the process of drafting the bill, the open format, which has been going on for a year.

Despite the positive changes (the new model of party financing, the restriction of the involvement of persons employed in budgetary organizations in the election agitation, additional regulations prohibiting the use of administrative resources, etc.), there are still issues that we consider critically important to hold fair elections:

Control over the expression of the voters’ will. The mechanisms provided by the bill are not sufficient to overcome the existing challenges and the following are necessary: (1) increasing the distance of the limitation of the placement of the agitation material up to 100 m, (2) prohibition of the presence of any unauthorized person being within the same radius (except for the voter, for the period of arrival at the polling station premises).

Staffing of the electoral administration. The proposed changes maintain the existing situation and serve to strengthen the ruling party's position in the electoral administration. From the next elections, we consider it expedient to move to the professional staffing of the electoral administration.

Gender quotas. GYLA welcomes the introduction of gender quotas (proposed 25%), although we believe that in order to achieve long-term and sustainable positive change, it is important to increase gender representation on the party list by up to 50%.

In more detail, you can see the conclusion.