Transparency International Georgia Publishes Material on Ghost Voting in the Georgian Parliament

Transparency International publishes article on absent parliamentarians and ghost voting in the Georgian Parliament on its website.

The article explains that the PMs are prohibited to vote with ID cards of their colleagues and the owner of the ID card is fined for breaching this rule; The penalty for the holder of the ID card is the withholding of one month’s salary for the first violation, three months’ salary for the second violation, and six months’ salary for any subsequent violations.

“Nonetheless, observations have revealed that ghost voting is commonly and openly practiced in the Georgian legislature. TI Georgia staff have attended a number of plenary sessions and discovered that certain MPs cast votes for their absent colleagues; some MPs were seen to use the voting devices of two or three absent members,” – states the article.

The video scenes of Maestro showing the ghost voting practice in the Georgian Parliament were also published.

“Apart from constituting a violation of the Parliamentary procedures, TI Georgia believes that ‘ghost voting’ is a breach of the basic democratic principle that lawmakers must hold sole responsibility for the votes they cast, as the elected representatives of their constituents,” – states the article.

“We urge Georgian MPs to act in good faith and to respect the Constitution and their constituents,” – concludes the article.

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