Setting up of DECs

1. A DEC is a standing territorial body of the Electoral Administration of Georgia. The CEC shall set up a DEC by at least two thirds of the total number of the CEC members. A DEC has an official seal with its name on it, a stamp, and a settlement and current bank accounts. The DEC chairperson and accountant are responsible for the DEC expenditure authorised by the CEC. A DEC may spend funds allocated for elections from any account opened with any commercial bank and/or its branch office.

2. The CEC shall be authorised to set up, by an ordinance, one DEC within the boundaries of one municipality, and 10 DECs in Tbilisi municipality. The boundaries of a municipality concerned shall be the jurisdiction of a DEC.

3. The term of office of a DEC member shall be five years. The term of office of a DEC member elected by the CEC under paragraph 5 of this article after elections are called shall be defined for the period from his/her appointment till the announcement of the final results of the elections in question.

4. Five members of a DEC shall be elected by the CEC for a five year-term by at least two thirds of the total number of members, unless otherwise established by this Law.

5. After elections are called, members of a DEC shall be appointed by the respective parties under the procedure established by Article 13 of this Law. Three members of a DEC shall be elected by the CEC by at least two thirds of the total number of members for the period until the final results of the elections in question are announced, unless otherwise established by this Law.

6. The decision of a party on the appointment of a DEC member must be submitted to the CEC within 7 calendar days after calling elections.

7. A party shall have the right to withdraw and appoint a DEC member only 3 weeks before the polling day. A party shall have the right to appoint a new DEC member during the last 3 weeks before the polling day if only an appointed member resigns or dies, and when a person cannot exercise powers of a DEC member by virtue of a court decision.

8. A person nominated as a DEC member shall not be considered a DEC member if the deadline for submitting the documents defined under Article 20(13) of this Law is not met, and/or the documents submitted are incomplete or inaccurate and the deficiencies in the aforementioned documents have not been corrected within the time limit set by this paragraph. If the documents submitted fail to comply with the requirements established by Article 20(17) of this Law, the CEC Chairperson shall, within two days, notify the entity that has appointed the DEC member of this fact (indicating the discrepancy). The corrected documents must be returned to the CEC within three days.

9. A person appointed as a DEC member by an authorised party shall not be considered a DEC member either if it is revealed that this person, at the time of his/her nomination to the CEC, is a member of the same or another election commission, and/or a person nominated fails to meet the requirements under Article 20(17) of this Law. In this case, the CEC Chairperson shall, within two days, notify the authorised party of this fact and shall additionally allow it a period of one day to nominate a new DEC member.

10. The head officer of a DEC shall be elected by the DEC from among the commission members elected by the CEC for a term of 5 years, by a majority of the total number of members.

11. A DEC may not be located in the same building where the administration of a state representative, the municipality representative body Sakrebulo or the City Hall, a party, a court, a police division, or a division of the State Security Service of Georgia are located.

12. A party or the election headquarters of a party/an initiative group may not be located in the building where the DEC is located.

13. The DEC Chairperson shall have the right, during the electoral period, to hire, under labour contracts, auxiliary and technical staff members (except for an accountant) for the DEC in the number determined by an ordinance of the CEC. The auxiliary and technical staff members of the DEC shall not be the public servants under the Law of Georgia on Public Service and they shall not fall under the requirements on incompatibility of offices established by the legislation of Georgia.

14. The DEC Chairperson may hire, under a labour contract, as many accountants as defined under paragraph 13 of this article until the end of the procedures provided for by Article 53(5) of this Law.

Organic Law of Georgia No 2093 of 7 March 2014 – website, 14.3.2014

Organic Law of Georgia No 3973 of 8 July 2015 – website, 15.7.2015

Organic Law of Georgia No 4392 of 27 October 2015 – website, 11.11.2015

Organic Law of Georgia No 4706 of 23 December 2015 – website, 8.1.2016

Organic Law of Georgia No 5438 of 22 June 2016 – website, 12.7.2016

Organic Law of Georgia No 168 of 21 December 2016 – website, 28.12.2016

Organic Law of Georgia No 1232 of 26 July 2017 – website, 29.7.2017

Organic Law of Georgia No 1274 of 26 July 2017 – website, 29.7.2017

Organic Law of Georgia No 3269 of 21 July 2018 – website, 27.7.2018

Organic Law of Georgia No 3266 of 21 July 2018 – website, 13.8.2018

Organic Law of Georgia No 6723 of 2 July 2020 – website, 3.7.2020

Organic Law of Georgia No 6854 of 15 July 2020 – website, 28.7.2020

Organic Law of Georgia No 6855 of 15 July 2020 – website, 28.7.2020

Organic Law of Georgia No 703 of 28 June 2021 – website, 29.6.2021