Home > 2.1 The competent bodies and their tasks > GEORGIA - Joint Opinion on the Election Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 85
 

According to Article 18.5.a of the code, only those who have received from the CEC a ‘certificate of election administration official’ can work on the CEC (members and staff) or a DEC.[43] The CEC establishes the rule for certification and ensures the conduct of the certification process for all election commission members and staff. While the certification process can enhance professionalism, it also raises several issues and requires guarantees of transparency and impartiality; in particular:

 

-          Such a certification process must be impartially implemented. The CEC will have to establish in advance clear and objective criteria for certification. Ideally, the CEC should seek to establish these criteria through an inclusive consultation process.

-          The modalities of the certification process must be transparent and should enable political parties and observers to verify the objectivity of the criteria and the impartiality of their implementation.

-          It should be clear whether or not the CEC is entitled to withdraw certificates. If it were, the withdrawal would amount to a dismissal and should be properly regulated as such, in order to avoid abusive withdrawals.

-          It should be clearly established whether the duration of the validity of certificates would be limited. If it were, rules for renewing or not renewing a certificate should be specified.

-          The certification process should not be viewed as relieving the election administration from the necessity to train polling station commission members.