Home > 1.1 Universal suffrage > GEORGIA - Opinion on the Unified Election Code
 
 
 
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Paragraph 14
 

 The amendments to the Election Code provide for the creation of a centralized, regularly updated national voter register. The Central Election Commission (CEC) shall be responsible for the drawing up of the general list of voters; for the computer processing and updating of the electronic database of the general voters list; and for its publication on the Internet (see Art. 9 and Art. 29). This is a most welcomed development which corresponds to international recommendations. However, the quality of the voter lists has so far been poor. The inaccuracy of the voter lists remains a key problem of elections in Georgia. While the electoral law provides an adequate legal basis, in practice, the registration process is completely insufficient due to a lack of commitment, capacity and coordination by the institutions involved in the compilation of the voter lists. The improved legal conditions regarding the inspection of the voter lists have not been used sufficiently so as to correct the voter register. Due to inconsistencies, the voter registration process was altered completely by a CEC decision of 26 October 2003 (that is, shortly before the 2003 elections), stopping improvements to the central voter register and allowing election commissions to use handwritten or computerised voter lists. This decentralisation of voter lists resulted in confusion and a lack of uniformity. As in previous elections, the de facto disenfranchisement of some voters and the double registration of others violated the fundamental principles of universal and equal suffrage (see International Election Observer Mission 2003). Nevertheless, the Electoral Code may constitute the legal basis for an accurate, centralised voter register, if applied with enough time, effort, and capacity.