Parliamentary committee endorses election code amendments at first reading

Georgia’s Parliamentary Committee on Procedural Issues has approved, at first reading, an organic law package introducing amendments to the country’s Election Code, moving the draft forward to a plenary session for further debate.

Presenting the bill, committee chair David Matikashvili said the revised Election Code proposes significant changes to how Georgian citizens residing abroad participate in elections. Under the new rules, similar to municipal elections, parliamentary elections would be held exclusively within Georgia’s state borders, limiting the participation of non-resident voters.

Matikashvili rejected claims that the ruling Georgian Dream party is seeking to restrict voting from abroad due to fears of losing support among non-resident citizens. He argued that the impact of such votes on election outcomes is statistically minimal.

“More than 96,000 non-resident voters registered in the last parliamentary elections, but only around 35,000 actually voted - roughly one-third, which amounts to about 1.5% of total votes. This is not a scale that could justify conspiracy theories,” he said.

According to Matikashvili, the decision is based on broader considerations, including ensuring fully informed political decision-making. He argued that electoral choice is best made within one’s home country, where access to diverse political information is more readily available.

He added that the proposal aligns with international practice, Constitutional Court interpretations related to Article 24 of the Georgian Constitution, and rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, particularly referencing a case involving Greece.

The legislative package includes multiple changes to the Election Code, among them:

• Updated definitions of key terms related to holding elections and referendums within Georgia’s borders.
  
  

• Revised rules for photo and video recording to strengthen personal data protection.
  
  

• Authorizing district commission chairs to issue decisions on leaving complaints without consideration when required by law.
  
  

• Expanding the list of legal acts issued by election administration bodies to include orders of district election commission chairs.
  
  

• Adjusting employment and incompatibility rules for election administration staff to encourage recruitment of qualified personnel.
  
  

• Clarifying procedures for indicating the percentage of votes received by electoral subjects in summary protocols, requiring up to five digits after the decimal point, without rounding.
  
  

• Barring individuals with criminal convictions from serving as election commission members, even if their sentence is a fine.
  
  

• Introducing rules for voters whose place of residence has been deregistered or whose registration has been annulled by the relevant agency, as well as for voters registered without a specific address.
  
  

• Establishing procedures for voters with limited mobility who use wheelchairs.
  
  

• Restricting individuals expelled from a polling station from entering any other polling station on election day.
  
  

• Defining special-group formation rules for precinct election commissions to ensure uninterrupted voting.
  
  

• Expanding circumstances under which ballots cast in mobile ballot boxes are forwarded to district commissions for decision-making.
  
  

• Simplifying candidate registration procedures and standardizing grounds for refusal or cancellation of registration.
  
  

Due to renumbering and restructuring within the new Election Code, amendments will also be made to the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure. Specifically, Article 226 will be updated to reference the corresponding article of the revised Election Code concerning the formation of district delegate bureaus.

The draft was initiated by MPs Archil Gordulazde, Tornike Cheishvili, Aleksandre Tabatadze, David Matikashvili, Rati Ionatamishvili, Aluda Gudushauri, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, Guram Macharashvili, and Akaki Aladashvili.