Georgian Media reports that Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, addressed the Parliament with an initiative to make changes to the paragraph 6 of the article 57 of The Election Code.
One of the majority leaders, Akaki Minashvili , made first comments about the initiative saying that this is an existing legislative provision, according to which, in case a party makes serious financial violations or party members do not present report on funding, it is possible that votes received by the party won’t be counted after the elections and added that this practically means that party will be withdrawn from elections .
As reported, President suggested removing these measures and imposing a fine instead. Namely, according to the initiative if a party doesn’t present report, GEL 10 000 fine (1.6 GEL=1 USD) will be imposed, if a party presents incomplete report and doesn’t make correction after a warning, GEL 3000 fine will have to be paid.
According to paragraph 57 of Article 6 of the Election Code, “if the electoral subjects, which received the necessary number of votes determined by law, will not present report on election campaign funding within the established dates, or a violation of the requirements of the law is proven, the State Audit Office must warn them in writing and require to correct the defect and submit detailed written report on violations. If the State Audit Office considers that a violation is substantial and could have influenced the outcome of the elections, it is entitled to address the election commission with recommendation to transfer the case to court and request that the results of the elections are finalized without taking into account votes, received by the subject.”
