Electoral Code of Georgia adopted in the second reading

On December 23, the draft Electoral Code was adopted at an extraordinary sitting of the Parliament of Georgia in the second reading by a majority of votes of the MPs.

According to the adopted amendments, Georgia will stop marking voters at elections; and the gender balance will be observed in the parliament of subsequent convocations.

"All the parties represented in parliament, which will observe the gender balance and fill in their quotas for women in the parliament, will receive additional funding. This rule of law is applied in many countries of the world," said David Bakradze, Speaker of the Parliament, without specifying the amount of the above additional funding.

During the second reading, indignation of the opposition was caused by the paragraph of the draft that allows governors to participate in the election campaign. Levan Vepkhvadze, a member of the faction of Christian-Democrats, demanded to take into account the recommendation of the experts of the Venice Commission and withdraw the paragraph from the draft.

"Governors are representatives of the central power; and they have the ability to manage the situation along the partisan line. If the Parliament considers all the recommendations of the Venice Commission, they should take into account this recommendation too," said Vepkhvadze.

The draft Electoral Code still has several points, on which the ruling party "United National Movement" and the opposition failed to reach agreement. Consultations of the parties and NGOs will be held in the coming days at the Parliamentary Legal Committee before bringing the bill to the third reading.