Report on Georgia's 2017 Local Elections to be Presented at CoE Congress

On 27-28 March the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will meet at its biannual 34^th Session (see its full agenda).

On Wednesday, 28 March, from 9am - 12pm, the report on local elections in Georgia of 21 October 2017 will be presented by the rapporteurs Stewart Dickson, United Kingdom (ILDG, R) and Jos Wienen, Netherlands (EPP-CCE, L).

The full text of the report is available at http://bit.ly/2pz75Lz

Summary of the report:

Upon invitation by the Georgian authorities, the Congress deployed a high-level Electoral Assessment Mission in order to evaluate the municipal elections held on 21 October 2017. On Election Day, three Congress teams involving seven observers from five Council of Europe member States visited around 30 polling stations, joining their efforts with the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission.

Overall, the Congress was satisfied with a calm, uneventful and well-administered Election Day in most of the polling stations visited by the delegation. The vote followed a mainly peaceful and competitive electoral campaign during which democratic values and freedoms were generally respected and candidates were able to campaign freely. An increasingly professional media environment fostered a more vivid political debate.

However, there were some concerns about misuse of administrative resources during the campaign which seemed to be of specific relevance at the local level. There were also cases of pressure on votersand on candidates withdrawing their candidature reported to the Delegation. In addition, there is room for improvement and more consistency with regard to regulations on campaign and party financing. The general context of the elections was shaped by the dominance of the ruling party.

Furthermore, the Congress referred to the reform potential of the Georgian law which currently allows voters who are registered at a permanent or temporary address to cast a ballot in local elections while Congress Recommendation 369(2015) provides that only voters who are permanently residing in a specific municipality should be enfranchised at the local level.