The Ajara Supreme Council is considering a draft law on the amendments to the staffing of the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC). According to the amendments, the term of office for the SEC Chairman and its members shall be reduced from 5 to 4 years. In addition, the draft law gives the local observer organizations observing the last elections to the Supreme Council the right to nominate SEC candidates while the power of the SEC acting members is terminated as soon as the amendments come into force.

Despite the fact that the draft law increases the role of the non-governmental sector in staffing the Electoral Administration, we believe that the proposed changes have been initiated hastily and their adoption will not solve the main problem of freeing the Electoral Administration from political influence.

We, the non-governmental organizations believe that the current electoral system contains a number of shortcomings. Subsequently, in the aftermath of the parliamentary elections, we came out with yet another initiative regarding the reform of the electoral law. One of the priorities of the reform is to carry out changes in the composition of the Electoral Administration. We, therefore, believe that the reform must ensure the genuine independence of the Electoral Administration and reduce to the utmost the risk of it being subjected to a possible political influence.

Local as well as international organizations equipped with the expertise in elections have started to work extensively in order to carry out a thorough analysis of the above issue and develop a desired model of the Electoral Administration. The Central Electoral Commission has been involved in the process and work is conducted in coordination with the Parliament.

We offer you to join us in discussing the SEC staffing issue in the NGO working group format.

Also, we urge you to prevent recurrences of the malpractice rooted in the past and expressed in speeded up adoption of important electoral changes in the last few days of the year with only a formal involvement of the public sector. Otherwise, the legislative changes will be construed as an attempt to exercise political influence on the Electoral Administration. Our goal is to implement a reform that would ensure the formation of the Electoral Administration free from both the former and current governments' political influence.

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)

The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association

Transparency International - Georgia

Open Society – Georgia Foundation

Civil Movement - Multinational Georgia

New Generation New Initiative (NGNI)

Elections and Political Technologies Research Center

Center for Democracy and Civil Society Development