The Competition Commission of the Republic of Georgia has selected the candidates for the chairman and other positions in the Central Election Commission (CEC). Giorgi Kalandarishvili has been nominated for the chairman position, whereas Maya Zaridze, Giorgi Sharabidze , and Gia Tsatsashvili were nominated for the members’ position at CEC.
As per the information received so far, Giorgi Kalandarishvil a highly qualified candidate submitted his application for CEC chairman and at the same time, Lukhum Burjalian, Maya Zaridze, Giorgi Sharabidze and Gia Tsatsashvili submitted applications for the 3 vacant positions of members in CEC.
Members of the commission listened to all the candidates for the vacant position who presented their views regarding the work of the Central Election Commission and suggested ways to enhance the CEC’s transparency.
Notably the competition commission has nine members including representatives of non-governmental organisations and the academic sector. The commission also includes the representative of the President of Georgia. During the meeting members of two non-governmental organizations demanded that the selection process be postponed until the controversy about foreign influence law was over, but request was declined.
Due to their demand for the postponement being rejected Nino Chchobadze and Zaur Khalilov did not participate in the commission’s further proceedings. The representative of the President of Georgia, Levan Shengelia, also expressed his solidarity with them.
Speaking on the occasion the chairman of the competition commission, Zviad Gabisonia, said that the ” commission has 7 days to discuss and present the relevant candidates to the chairman of the parliament. The request of the representative of 2 non-governmental organisations was to postpone the selection of candidates until April 15. Still, we decided not to postpone the commission’s work because the 7-day period does not allow us to select candidates”.
” We all know that adopting the law is a procedure and not a one-time act. Therefore this process can be extended indefinitely if the authority was not violated” he added.
