Central Election Commission of Georgia September 9, 2010 Formation of the Voters’ List in Georgia Existing Situation and Future Project

In Brief  Accurate Voters’ List - one of the components of fair elections;  Presentation will focus on existing practice of voters’ list formation, its positive and negative aspects;  We will also present the future plan of improving the creation of the accurate list of voters; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Importance of Accuracy of Voters’ List Accurate voters list is important, since, it creates:  Reliability of Election Systems;  Level of Election Legitimacy;  Trust from the citizens’ side towards the system, especially vital in the emerging democracies The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Formation of the Voters’ List: Formation should include the following criteria:  Transparency of the process;  Accessibility of information; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Various practice of voters list formation Positive and Negative aspects The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Formation of the Unified Voters List Formation of the voters’ list on the basis of the unified citizens’ list: Positive sides;  Registration of all voters –voter does not need to visit polling place several times;  Information about all potential voters; additional opportunity for the political parties; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Formation of the Unified Voters List Formation of the voters’ list on the basis of the unified citizens’ list: Negative sides:  Voters list formation process depends on the databases existed in state entities; accordingly any existing inaccuracy is automatically reflected in the voters’ list;  Election administration is responsible for the formation of the list, however its capacities are limited; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Formation of the Voters’ List Pre-election Registration Positive sides:  High quality and trust towards the accuracy of the voters list;  The resources are not spent on identification and inclusion in the voters’ list of the passive voters The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Formation of the Voters’ List Pre-election Registration Negative sides:  Bringing the voters to the polling station several times;  Possible conflict situations at polling stations on E- Day- a voter, who has not gone through preliminary registration, might have a will to vote. These cases might happen in the country, where the political traditions are still to be developed; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

The case of Georgia: Existing practice Formation of the Voters’ list is implemented on the basis of data provided by different entities;  Civil Registry Agency of Ministry of Justice of Georgia;  Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia;  Supreme Court of Georgia;  Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia;  Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia;  Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

The case of Georgia: Unified Voters’ List Positive sides:  Possibility of implementing voters’ list monitoring by political parties, the case of 2010 elections;  Raising the level of trust from the political parties’ side;  Joint work on revealing inaccuracies in the list; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

The case of Georgia Unified Voters List Negative sides  Inaccuracies existing in the databases of the above mentioned state entities automatically are reflected in the Voters’ list; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

The case of Georgia Possibility: Pre-election Registration  During Presidential and Parliamentary Elections 2004, Voters’ List has been composed according to the pre-election registration; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

The case of Georgia Pre-election Registration Positive sides;  Political crisis has been caused by the inaccuracies revealed in the Voters’ list on Parliamentary Elections, in November  This problem was solved with pre-election registration of voters for extraordinary elections The Central Election Commission of Georgia

The case of Georgia Preliminary Registration Negative sides:  In order to avoid the problems, registration of voters has been allowed on E-Day of Extraordinary Parliamentary Elections this action was appropriate for the given moment; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Why is the topic on the top of agenda?  To raise the level of trust towards the election administration per se;  To develop the trust based system of elections for all participant sides; The Central Election Commission of Georgia

Thank You! The Central Election Commission of Georgia