NGO Views on Proposed Legislative Changes to Election Environment

On December 26, several non-governmental organizations working on election issues expressed their opinion on proposed amendments to the Election Code, the Criminal Code and the Law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens.  At a news conference held in the Tbilisi Marriott Hotel on the question, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Transparency International Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, Coalition for Freedom of Choice and OSGF issued a statement, which could be signed by any organization or citizen sharing views of the NGOs.

The NGOs stated openly their views in the appeal.  According to the statement the proposed changes call for “unreasonable restrictions”, which limit the freedom of expression of private and non-governmental organizations and ordinary citizens.

NGO representatives explained for the media and public those provisions of the proposed amendments that may not be quite clear for ordinary citizens because of professional terminology used in them.

The NGOs urge the Georgian Parliament to adopt the legislation that meets international human rights standards and warn against the enactment of unbalanced and biased norms, which is a real danger if Parliament approves the bills in the form they had as of December 26.

The NGOs think that approval of proposed amendments may pose danger to voters, restrict the freedom of expression and disproportionately increase restrictions imposed on the private sector.

During the news conference, the NGOs devoted attention to the amendment Parliament proposed to Article 164¹ of the Criminal Code – “Bribing Voters”.  According to the bill, a legal entity that will commit the crime will be subject to liquidation.

“To put it simply, this may be the consequence even when some business company gives one sack of flour to a voter and asks him/her to support any political party in exchange.  Naturally, we agree that bribing the voter shall not be allowed, but we think that in such cases proportional and reasonable punishment should applied”, said Nina Khatiskatsi of the Transparency International Georgia.

During the news conference the attention focused on the amendment calling for criminal liability of a voter along with a political party if the former accepts money, other property or service from the political party.  “For instance, if a party finances a certain medical service for a voter, the latter will be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison”, said Nina Khatiskatsi.

According to proposed changes, a political party may be subject to criminal liability not only for direct but also indirect bribery of a voter.  There is a danger that the bribery committed by an individual may be always related to some political party.  If a person (may be a provoker), who does not act on behalf of a party, asks some voter to vote for the party in exchange for some amount of money or item, this may be considered as a crime committed indirectly, by means of other person, by the party and lead to its liquidation.

Another important restriction introduced by the proposed bill is that legal entities, their representatives and “other persons” are restricted to call the voter to support or refrain from supporting any political force.  However, at the same time, according to the Election Code, election campaign is not banned even for public officials when they perform their job duties.

“It is important that according to the current legislation, freedom of expression of public officials is not restricted.  People employed in administrative bodies, legal entities of public laws, are not banned from calling the voters to support or refrain from supporting any political force even when they perform their job duties.  We think therefore that restrictions introduced by the bill are completely disproportionate.  Moreover, the reasons for the restriction of freedom of expression of legal entities, their representatives or “other persons”, are absolutely unclear.  We think that open campaign by any ordinary Gamgebeli (head of the local administrative body) may influence the electorate more than the campaign made by any theatre or enterprise staff member”, said Tamar Chugoshvili of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association.

“In the opinion of NGO representatives, public officials should be subject to stricter rather than the same legislative environment as the private sector.  However, instead of introducing a ban and sanctions for the public sector, the proposed bill places tougher restrictions on the private sector alone”, says the statement.

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Georgian Parliament is considering the bills that focus on changing an election environment through imposing restrictions on business companies, their staff, NGOs and political parties.  The changes call for the regulation of the activities of these groups but fail to address the same activities of public office holders, generally public officials and other people employed in the public sector, who support political parties by using administrative resources or other means.

 
See The Statement
Listen to the Statement.
See Document on “NGO Opinion”