22.11.2007 - Source: Civil Georgia

Parliament approves of voter registration on election day although watchdog warns of increased risk of ballot fraud ("Voter Registration on Polling Day Approved") [ID 21710]

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22.11.2007 - Source: Civil Georgia

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) says voter registration on polling day would increase risk of ballot fraud; due proximity of elections, voter list controls would be inaccurate and allow for people to submit more than one vote by accessing different polling stations ("Election Watchdog Against Voter Registration on Polling Day") [ID 21711]

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07.2006 - Source: Freedom House

Report on democratisation (electoral process, civil society, independent media, governance) and rule of law (corruption) ("Nations in Transit 2006") [ID 15637]

Principle of voter self-registration has caused that some people lost their right to vote; composition of electoral commissions and its neutrality was another contested issue;  since Rose Revolution there has been one dominant party - UNM and two opposition blocs - New Rights-Industrialists and Democratic Front faction

"After the Rose Revolution, an amendment to the electoral legislation was adopted that introduced the principle of voter self-registration. Its initial version included an option to register on election day, but this was later removed. This led to a situation where some people who took part in the snap elections and expected to be on the parliamentary by-election list lost their right to vote when their names were not found. Another criticism of the elections was the use of so-called administrative resources in favor of government candidates. This also implied the use of state budget resources to partially fund the campaigns of candidates. The composition of election commissions continues to be an issue. [...] Amendments to the election code adopted in April 2005 introduced a new system of creating central and district election commissions based on neutral civil servants selected through a competitive process. According to the law, the president selects 12 candidates for the Central Election Commission (CEC) and a candidate for the chair, while the Parliament elects 6 members and confirms the chair. Based on these parameters, a commission was created in summer 2005, but it drew protests from the opposition, which did not trust the neutrality of the new electoral administration. The most substantive deficiency in the Georgian electoral system is the lack of strong and stable political parties competing at different levels. Most influential political parties are seen as machines for ensuring support for their individual leaders, rather than as vehicles for mobilizing citizens around competing interests and policy options. There is a tradition of dominant political parties—the Round Table from 1990 to 1991, the Citizens’ Union of Georgia from 1995 to 2001, and the Union of Revival of Georgia in Achara from 1992 to 2004—that tend to merge with government structures. The Rose Revolution led to the re-creation of a single dominant party, the UNM. There are two opposition blocs in the Parliament: The New Rights–Industrialists has 17 members; the Democratic Front faction (also with 17 members) was created in fall 2005 from two party groups, the Republicans and the Conservatives, which broke away from the UNM faction, and several independent members of Parliament (MPs). The parliamentary opposition does not have any significant influence on the work of the Parliament but actively uses the parliamentary platform to publicize its views."

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