Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili vetoed amendments to the Self-Government Code and the Election Code, with the former reducing the number of self-governing cities from current twelve to five and the latter introducing new rule of composition of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
“The spirit of both of these laws hinders the country’s democratic process, weakens pluralism and reduces public involvement in the functioning of our state,” President Margvelashvili said on July 20.
He also noted that reducing the number of self-governing cities “weakens the importance of municipal elections,” while amendments to the election code aim at increasing the ruling party’s presence in CEC, that in turn “decreases trust towards the election administration.”
Margvelashvili also criticized “hasty” adoption of the amendments, noting that the approval of election-related amendments three months before the municipal elections goes against the recommendations of Georgia’s international partners.
Some Georgian Dream lawmakers pledged to thoroughly examine Margvelashvili’s objections; others noted that by vetoing the bill, “the President pursues his political agenda.”
A group of Georgian civil society organizations called on President Margvelashvili to veto the package of amendments in their statement released on June 30, after the Parliament approved the amendments to the Local Self-Government Code, according to which only five cities, among them Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Poti and Batumi will maintain their status of independent self-governing units, while the remaining seven cities - Telavi, Mtskheta, Gori, Akhaltsikhe, Ambrolauri, Ozurgeti and Zugdidi – will lose this status.
CSOs and opposition parties criticized the election code amendments as well, according to which number of political parties eligible to appoint representatives to CEC will be significantly narrowed: only those parties will be eligible to have representatives in election administration, which manage to clear the 5% threshold and set up a faction in the Parliament.
