The Chair of Georgia’s Central Election Commission, Tamar Zhvania, has resigned citing her wish to facilitate a new political consensus ahead of October local elections.
‘Although, by law, I could have continued working at the administration for more than two years, I believe that the election regulations adopted on the grounds of [EU President] Charles Michel’s Agreement has brought new realities’, Zhvania said on Wednesday.
Zhvania’s resignation has been among the primary demands by the opposition ahead of new elections.
‘Accordingly, electing the head of the CEC under new regulations will be an additional factor for wide political agreement’, Zhvania said.
‘I am certain that my decision will increase a possibility of constructive relations between political forces, which will also be beneficial for the election administration, for the future election process and for the entire country.’
Zhvania will leave her post from 1 July.
Her resignation came two days after Georgian lawmakers voted in favour of a package of electoral reforms based on the 19 April agreement between the government and opposition brokered by the EU.
While her resignation was not part of the agreement reached in April, several opposition groups have insisted it was needed in order for the public to regain trust in the electoral process.
Most of the opposition groups, including the formerly ruling United National Movement Party (UNM), still maintain that last October’s parliamentary elections were ‘rigged’, and that Zhvania was personally responsible for this.
Zhvania, who has headed the CEC since 2013, had rejected the idea of stepping down as recently as on 21 June, insisting there was no reason for her to do so.
Protesters clashed with police outside the Central Election Commission on 8 November 2020 following the announcement of preliminary election results. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.
According to the recent electoral reforms, Zhvania’s successor must be elected by a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Previous heads were appointed by the CEC after being nominated by the President.
The amended electoral code also increased the number of members of the Central Election Commission from 12 to 17.
After fleeing a not-so-promising academic career and a disastrous attempt at being a bisexual activist, Shota is now a grumpy staff writer covering Georgia-related topics at OC Media. He focuses on nationalism, far-right movements, gender, and queer issues, with an eye on Eastern and Central Europe.
The holding of free and fair elections is central to democracy, yet, if elections are not considered free and fair, then polarisation and questions about their legitimacy can divide society. Polling from CRRC Georgia suggests a deep partisan divide in Georgia when it comes to views on the quality of elections in the country.
Data CRRC Georgia collected before the 2021 municipal elections for ISFED and after the elections for NDI shows that supporters of the ruling party and opposition were and
Georgian Dream have won a byelection for the Batumi City Council. While the council is now formally hung, a ‘neutral’ candidate is suspected to be a ruling party ally.
Georgian Dream’s candidate Ramaz Jincharadze won a convincing victory in Saturday’s vote for a majoritarian council seat in Batumi, Georgia’s second-largest city and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.
The result will upset plans by opposition groups the United National Movement (UNM) and Lelo to deny the ruling
The opposition appears to have lost their majority on the Batumi City Council after the death of a councillor, allegedly following pressure from the government.
Nugzar Putkaradze died last Thursday in what his sister, who also sits on the city council, has said was a diabetic attack. The opposition United National Movement (UNM) have claimed that his blood sugar levels skyrocketed leading to his death after repeated attempts by people connected to the ruling party to make him defect.
Putkara
International and local election observers often note violations of the secrecy of the ballot in Georgia, and the 2021 local elections were no exception. According to a recent study, a plurality of people think such violations could take place in Georgia, and some have heard of such cases in the past year.
On the survey on election-related attitudes carried out by CRRC Georgia for ISFED, respondents were asked about a hypothetical country where a citizen’s vote was somehow revealed to a neig
