Majoritarian Candidates Will Have Their 5 000 Lari Recovered based on CEC Resolution

Georgian Central Election Commission’s letter to Human Rights Center states that four majoritarian candidates, who lost interim parliamentary elections of April 27, will have their 5 000 lari deposits recovered. In accordance to the old provision in the law, candidates had transferred the sum to the CEC account to get registered in the elections.

The CEC made the decision after on April 11 Constitutional Court of Georgia upheld the constitutional suit of Human Rights Center Besik Adamia vs Parliament of Georgia and the norm in the Election Code, which obliged majoritarian candidates nominated by initiative group to transfer 5 000 lari to the CEC account to participate in the elections, was annulled. According to the old provision, the candidates could get their money back only if they had gained at least 10% of votes in the elections.

The law envisaged this particular provision for only one election subject – majoritarian candidate named by the initiative group of voters. The same requirement was not envisaged for other majoritarian candidates or election subjects like political party or an election block. Constitutional Court shared the position of Human Rights Center and agreed that the norm breached equality principle before the law that is guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution of Georgia.

On April 22, Human Rights Center sent letter to the Georgian Central Election Commission and asked to notify whether the candidates would recover their money back based on the court decision.

CEC Chairman wrote back that in accordance to the April 25, 2013 decision of the Constitutional Court, four majoritarian candidates in April 27 interim elections will get their money back within 20 days.

Human Rights Center