Today, on September 28, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) traditionally celebrated the international Right to Know Day.

To mark the celebration, GYLA held simultaneous events in its offices in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Gori and Telavi under the frames of the project Promotion of Transparency and Accountability in Georgia.

In Tbilisi GYLA held a presentation of the research prepared on Issuing Permission for Street Vending on the Territory of Tbilisi, as well as the public information database of GYLA.

GYLA’s research on Issuing Permission for Street Vending on the Territory of Tbilisi focuses on lawfulness of the process, main trends and problems revealed in practice of issuing permits by the Tbilisi Architecture Service for placing temporary edifices and/or facilities for street vending in public areas on the territory of Tbilisi. The research disclosed facts of biased decisions, existence of “privileged” companies, as well as lack of substantiation of decisions made.

Today GYLA also held a public presentation of its public information database

On September 30, 2011 the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), together with the partner NGOs: International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and International Transparency -Georgia held a presentation on the draft of the new Election Code.

The organizations submitted to the representatives of local and international organizations, political parties and other interested persons their observations on the proposed amendments to the election legislation.

As they state, in general the draft does not introduce substantial changes for improving election environment. Organizations plan to continue activities in that direction with the Parliament of Georgia and other interested entities. Later on, they will also submit their opinions to the Parliament.

As it is known, on September 26 the draft of the Organic Law of Georgia on “Introducing Amendments to the Election Code of Georgia” was initiated to the Parliament. The proposed document envisages establishment of ad hoc commission for development of voter lists that will “ensure specification of voter lists on the whole territory of Georgia by different means, including door to door inspection principle”. “The commission will specify voter lists by July 1, 2012. The list submitted by the commission to the Central Election Commission (CEC) is considered to be voter’s general list. ” Representative of NGOs and political parties form the Commission. Even though initially the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, International Transparency –Georgia and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy were also represented among NGOs, these organizations were not given opportunity to be involved in elaboration and examination of the draft. In particular, the draft initiated on September 26, was passed to the bureau the same day, while at least 72 hours interval should have been observed between initiation of the draft and the session of the bureau. Furthermore, the rule established by the regulation on publication of the information about the session of Legal Issues Committee was also violated. It envisages publication of information on the web-page of the Parliament about the session and its agenda two days prior to the session. In this restricted period of time it is completely impossible to participate in law drafting process for the interested persons.

On October 1, 2011 in Gori, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD) and the organization Safer World organized public discussion on the following topic: - difficulties connected to the opportunities of dialogue and more interaction among Georgians, Abkhazians and Osetians.

The discussion was mainly aimed at enabling local population to have constructive dialogue with representatives of local and central government and to plan joint solutions of the problems. Problems have been identified during the first phase of the project on the basis of consultations carries out in the communities.

The discussion has been carried out in the frames of the project “Increasing regional capacity for community-based approaches to security, as a tool for sustainable early warning, conflict prevention and local accountability” funded by the UK Conflict Resolution Fund. Similar discussions will be held in Samtskhe Javakheti, Shida Kartli, Samegrelo and Kvemo Kartli regions. The final discussion will be organized in Tbilisi.

Tomorrow, on October 4, at 11.00 a.m. preliminary hearing will take place at Tbilisi City Court on the case of journalists damaged on May 26.

The administrative panel of Tbilisi City Court will examine the joint complaint of the seven applicants against the Ministry of Interior of Georgia. At the preliminary hearing the court will judge on the issues of submitting additional evidences and on satisfying other motions. The preliminary hearing is appointed with a view to prepare the case comprehensively for hearing on merits.

Format of the mission
GYLA was monitoring the mid-term elections of the Parliament of Georgia held on October 2, 2011 in Telavi election district No.17. It has implemented the monitoring with the help of three mobile groups which have encompassed 54 precinct election commissions of Telavi district. During the polling day GYLA observers were monitoring process at the polling stations on a systematic basis. In general, the polling day was held in peaceful environment and no significant violations were detected. Mainly there were only procedural or technical gaps distinguished.

Deficiencies of the Polling Day
Procedural gaps were detected most frequently in polling stations of the village Kharajali (No.37; 38; 39; and 54 ). Ballot papers have not been printed on a language that national minorities were able to understand and therefore, majority of voters were unable to vote independently. Frequently, voters in the polling booths needed assistance in making their choice that inhibited conduct of balloting in an organized way. There were instances when voters indicated each other to vote for a specific election subject.