The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) believes that in light of the future parliamentary elections, the electoral reform must focus on changing the existing electoral system. In particular, work must be done to introduce the electoral system ensuring that elections are conducted fairly, seats are allocated in proportion to votes, the risk of losting votes is decreased to minimum and the principle of equality of votes is observed.
Dear Members of the Parliament,
Representatives of the civil society and political parties address you with this joint appeal:
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) is extremely concerned about the decision of Imedi TV management to temporarily suspend the segment of social and political talk shows during its fall season. As a result, two highly popular talk shows - Imedis Kvira and Reaktsia hosted by Inga Grigolia were closed down.
Management of the TV Company explained the decision by its desire to change format of existing programs and create “a brand new TV product” for 2016 season.
On August 31, 2015 the Georgian Dream coalition announced that no fundamental changes to the electoral system were being planned prior to the 2016 parliamentary elections. Instead, the government plans to introduce two changes. Firstly, a new 50% threshold will be introduced to the majoritarian electoral system. This will mean that if in the first round of voting a candidate does not receive 50% of the vote, a second round run-off will be triggered. Secondly, majoritarian electoral district boundaries will be adjusted, in accordance with the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the Council of Europe’s 2002 Code of Good Practice.
This Affects You Too – They Are Still Listening Campaign urges the law enforcement authorities to launch a probe based on Eka Mishveladze’s statement
On October 8, while being a guest of Rustavi 2 talk show Archevani, journalist Eka Mishveladze stated that she was under surveillance.
With the help from GYLA’s office in Kutaisi, two beneficiaries were relieved of administrative liability
With the help from lawyers in GYLA’s office in Kutaisi, two beneficiaries were relieved of administrative liability and released on warning. One beneficiary had been accused of illegally restricting public areas based on a protocol of violation prepared by a representative of Kutaisi City Hall’s Architecture and Supervision Service. Another beneficiary had been accused of defacement of appearance of a self-governing entity.
On September 15, 2015, during the visit of Prime Minister in Ozurgeti, members of the United National Movement (UNM) hung up a fabric banner on façade of one of the buildings in Ozurgeti bearing words “Government is a liar”. This was followed by immediate arrest of UNM members Davit Mzhavanadze and Ilia Malazonia, as well as a member of NGO Free Zone, Beso Katamadze by Ozurgeti Police under para.2, Article 150 of the Code of Administrative Offences – Making various types of inscriptions, drawings or symbols on building facades, shop windows, fences, columns, trees or other plantings without authorization, also putting up placards, slogans, banners at places not allocated for this purpose, or leaving fences and buildings unpainted, committed repeatedly, which carries a fine of 500 laris. Authorities drew up corresponding protocol of administrative offence but the detainees allege that they never received a copy of the document.
On September 21, a Facebook page named Georgian Ultras released a video footage of two incidents of assault of peaceful people in the streets of Tbilisi by an organized group. The videos were captioned as “Bergman against Negros. Hooligan firm of Dinamo often performs similar “cleaning works.” The hooligans from Tbilisi mostly target Negros but they also resist Turks and Arabians.”
