13 Sep, 2022
As you know, the government is actively working on the implementation of the 12-point plan set out by the European Union, one of the points of which concerns the revision of the Election Code of Georgia.
A working group headed by Givi Mikanadze was set up in the Parliament of Georgia in order to implement the relevant reform. A package of draft laws will be developed by the working group in the near future, which will essentially be based on OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and topics discussed in the working group with the involvement of political parties and civil society representatives.
Part of the proposals presented in the working group concerned the widespread introduction of electronic technologies in the electoral process. In this regard, the political team of the Georgian Dream discussed – and made a decision on – the widespread introduction of voter registration and voting using electronic equipment from 2024.
Last year, the voting procedure in the Krtsanisi District of Tbilisi was carried out using fully electronic means. This year, the midterm Sakrebulo [City Council] elections in eight election precincts of Batumi Municipality were held using electronic equipment. The successful experience of voter registration and voting with the use of modern technologies allows us to implement this initiative on a large scale from 2024.
Namely, according to our decision, voter registration and voting will be carried out using electronic equipment in the majority of election precincts, including all cities and large settlements, which covers at least 70 percent of voters.
Electronic voting will definitively solidify public confidence in the vote counting process, eliminate the problem of imbalance in election protocols, put an end to speculation about so-called electoral carousels, ensure that the votes of over 70 percent of voters are counted – and the results published – within minutes of the conclusion of the voting process, and eliminate problems pertaining to the falsification of exit polls and parallel vote tabulation (PVT).
Correspondingly, our decision of today will be one of the most important constituent parts of the electoral reform, which will minimize the problem of the manipulation of election results.
Our initiative will take the shape of a draft law in the coming days, at which point practical steps will be taken to equip polling stations with voting equipment, on the basis of consultations with the Government of Georgia, the CEC, and experts in the field.