The Working Group, established in view of implementing the EC’s recommendations regarding the revisions to the election code of Georgia, convened its first session.

According to Givi Mikanadze, the First Deputy Chairman of the faction "Georgian Dream" and the Head of the Working Group on Revision of Election Code, the objective of this group, which is explicitly stated in the recommendations made by the European Commission, is to update Georgia's election laws in accordance with the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR guidelines.

"The office of the Legal Issues Committee introduced a special document containing 18 recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission, as well as 6 recommendations of the Council of Europe's anti-corruption body GRECO, which were reported to require partial implementation. As a result of a detailed review, it was revealed that a large part of these recommendations has been implemented, and based on the fact that GRECO's last assessment regarding the changes in the Georgian legislation was made in 2018, they may not have current information. Therefore, I asked the representative of the State Audit Service to proactively send a relevant document from their office to GRECO. We also held a general discussion on 18 recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission. However, we did not go into the discussion of these recommendations in depth due to the fact that the participants of the meeting asked for some time for them to present their reasoned positions. As it turned out, a number of issues have been fulfilled, a number of issues can be fulfilled quite easily, and a number of issues need additional discussion and agreement on positions", - Givi Mikanadze noted.

According to him, the second working meeting will be held on August 25, where all the positions presented by the members of the group will be discussed in detail, after which the office of the Legal Issues Committee will commence working on the draft legislative changes.

According to Givi Mikanadze, the package of changes will be ready by September 10-11, and the working group will probably hold a final meeting before the first reading by September 15.

The working group includes 4 members of the parliamentary majority, one member each from the political groups - "Girchi", "Citizens" and "European Socialists", one non-attached MP from the party "For Georgia". Representatives of the CEC, the State Audit Service, the National Communications Commission, and civil society will also participate in the group's activities.