The decision of President regarding to the date of coming presidential election was announced on 1st of July, 2013. According to the Administration of President the next scheduled presidential elections was announced to be held on 27th of October though, later the date of the election based on the President's decree was changed to 31st of October.
Change the date of the presidential election made society dissatisfied since 31st of October, 2013 is Thursday, working day. Also, there were opinions that President is not authorized to appoint the presidential elections on a working day. This is due to the Electoral Code, Article 6, according to which "the next elections, the referendum / plebiscite, except for the presidential elections, to be held on any day of the week." According to the norm written above, appointing the presidential elections on any day of the week is not allowed, though neither Electoral Code nor any other code gives any specification regarding to the day of the week allowed for presidential elections. However, the code above coexisted with the norms of the Constitution, which specified that presidential elections should be held on the second Sunday of April after the expiration of the term of President. This norm no longer can be found in Constitution; therefore, we believe that the uncertain part from Article 6 of the Electoral Code is a gap in the law and according to the current law the President was authorized to determine the election date himself.
Though, President determined Thursday, 31st of October, 2013 as the final date of election, we think holding the election in the middle of the working week, taking into account several factors, will be problematic. Particularly:
According to Article 6 of the Election Code election day is usually declared as a holiday, but this is a serious problem for the citizens living abroad. It is practically impossible for those citizens to use their right to vote when elections are held on a week day since the presidential election in Georgia is not a holiday, but a normal working day for them. This problem was clearly highlighted during the parliamentary elections of October 1, 2012.
Holding elections in the middle of the week is an obstacle for the citizens in Georgia also. Mostly the voter has to travel to the location of registration that very often means to travel from one city to another for which one day holiday is not enough.
We believe that the President should use his right to appoint the election date in the way to maximally encourage the activity of voters, both inside and outside the country, and ensure the possibility for the citizens to realize the right of voting. Otherwise, we might get the nihilistic attitude of citizens to the process of elections, which represents a serious threat to democratic society.
Considering the above factors into account, due to taking to hold the presidential elections on Sunday for the citizens in Georgia and abroad to be an important fact for realizing the right of voting, we call on the President to find the most efficient, simple, and prompt solution regarding to the announcing the date of elections by making changes in his decree and to appoint it on one of the Sundays of October.
• International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
• Transparency International - Georgia
• The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association
• Article 42 of Constitution
• General - Civil Movement - Multinational Georgia
• Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre
• The Democratic Initiative
• Center for Development and Democracy
• Research Center of Election and Political Technologies
• Development of Civil Society and Democracy
• Center for Human Rights
• Public Defender
July 3, 2013
