Georgia’s new amendments to Election Code: how will they affect right to challenge election results?
The Georgian government is proposing amendments to the Election Code that would significantly affect the procedures for counting votes and challenging election results, the powers of the election administration, and the registration rules for local and international election observer organisations.
The bill was introduced in parliament on 28 October.
What will change
Election results will no longer be compiled at district level
Until now, Georgia has had three tiers of election commissions:
- Precinct commissions, which operate at polling stations and count the votes cast at each station separately;
- District commissions, which collect and consolidate data from the precinct commissions in their respective districts;
- The Central Election Commission (CEC), which compiles the overall results based on data from the district commissions.
Under the proposed changes, polling station protocols will go directly to the CEC, which will compile the results itself.
The final results protocol can only be challenged on specific grounds
Under the amendments, a challenge to the results protocol will only be admissible if:
- It omits or incorrectly records data from precinct election commissions;
- It omits, incompletely records or incorrectly reflects the results of final court rulings concerning violations of election law.
The amendments also specify that “a claim filed with a court in violation of the requirements of this paragraph will not be admitted for consideration”.
If a court does accept a claim, it will only be able to examine the specific circumstances defined by law.
District commissions will no longer have to conduct random recounts after elections
Until now, district commissions had to randomly select five polling stations and recount their votes within six days of the end of an election.
The amendments abolish this requirement.
The bill’s authors argue that, at polling stations equipped with electronic voting machines, officials count the votes after printing out the results. At stations without such machines, they digitise ballot papers within two days and publish them online. They say this makes additional random recounts unnecessary.
The deadline for finalising election results will be cut from 26 days to 15
Previously, the CEC had 26 days to finalise the results of parliamentary elections, Tbilisi City Council elections and the Tbilisi mayoral election. It had 15 days to finalise the results of local government elections and mayoral races in other municipalities.
Under the new rules, the CEC will have to finalise the results of all elections within two weeks of election day – no later than the 15th day.
Any court proceedings challenging election protocols must also conclude within this period.
The explanatory note accompanying the bill says that 14 days are sufficient to challenge results before district commissions and in court.
“Accordingly, by the 15th day, final protocols that have entered into force will already be in place, while the additional 11 days only prolong the process,” it says.
Winners will have less time to submit campaign spending reports to the Audit Office
An electoral subject – a party or bloc – that preliminary results show has secured the legally required number of votes will have to submit a full report on its election spending to the Audit Office within five days.
Previously, parties had 12 days to submit these reports.
If a party that wins an election fails to submit its report on time or violates the law, the Audit Office will issue a written warning and demand that it rectify the problem. If the violation is serious and could have affected the election results, the CEC will be able, on the Audit Office’s recommendation, to apply to the court and finalise the results without counting the votes cast for that party.
Broadcasters will no longer be able to reallocate unused political advertising slots to other parties
Under the new bill, the final second of every political television advertisement must display the name and number of the electoral subject. Broadcasters will not be allowed to air political advertisements that fail to meet this requirement.
Previously, broadcasters and publications could reallocate advertising time or space to another electoral subject if a party or bloc declined to use its allocated slot.
The amendments will prohibit this practice.
The bill’s explanatory note says the change will help prevent broadcasters from allocating political advertising time beyond the limits set by law.
“This effectively removes the right to challenge election results”
Nona Kurdovanidze, director of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), believes the amendments would effectively remove the possibility of challenging election results.
The lawyer points in particular to the new rules governing challenges to the CEC’s final results protocol. She says that, had these rules applied during the 2024 parliamentary elections, it would not even have been formally possible to challenge violations of ballot secrecy. Consequently, the Tetritskaro court precedent would never have been established.
The Tetritskaro precedent concerns events during Georgia’s parliamentary elections on 26 October 2024.
Voters marked a circle next to their preferred party’s number on the ballot paper. They then placed the ballot inside a special frame envelope and fed it into an electronic vote-counting machine. The ballot papers were printed on thin paper, so the marker ink showed through on the reverse side. As a result, anyone could see how a voter had cast their ballot when they inserted it into the machine.
GYLA subsequently launched legal proceedings over the breach of ballot secrecy, seeking to annul the results at every polling station that used electronic voting technology.
On 4 November, Vladimir Khuchua, a judge at the Tetritskaro District Court (Tetritskaro is a town in southern Georgia), upheld GYLA’s claim and annulled the results at 30 polling stations in two electoral districts. This was the first time a court had confirmed a breach of ballot secrecy during the 2024 elections. However, on 7 November, the Tbilisi Court of Appeal overturned the ruling.
Amendments to Georgia’s Election Code
