The draft of a new Electoral Code of Georgia, printed on 140 pages the night before, has been published on the web page of the Georgian parliament. The document was prepared by the Parliamentary Legal Committee. It reflects the agreements that were reached by the ruling National Movement with several opposition parties last summer, including the financing to the amount of one million lari of political parties that have overcome the barrier in the parliamentary elections and a doubling of the limit of election donations, according to Georgia-Online.
Throughout this period there were expectations that the parliament, in accordance with the terms of the agreement, would introduce amendments to the current legislation before the end of October. The parliamentary cabinet initiated the new Electoral Code, a project that, according to the ruling party earlier this week, had already been sent to the Venice Commission for examination.
The draft Electoral Code, which consists of 131 articles, will if adopted replace the current Electoral Code, signed on page 171, which consists of 185 articles and has been in operation since 2011, to which Parliament to date has adopted 46 changes and additions .
In order to adopt a new Electoral Code, in June 2010 the Georgian authorities called on the Venice Commission, which in its recommendations said that, instead of making additional changes to the existing Electoral Code, the Parliament can adopt the new Code in the near future, at least one year before the next election.
