THIS AFFECTS YOU TOO
Legislative amendments made at the end of December 2011, in particular, the bill on Political Unions of Citizens and amendments to the Election and Criminal Codes have considerably deteriorated the pre- election environment. The amendments run absolutely counter to the statements made by Government of Georgia to improve election environment and legislation, and develop democratic processes in that regard.
Even lawyers find the adopted legislative amendments rather obscure, thus provide a room for wide interpretation and do not guarantee equal opportunities for political entities. And more importantly, too “tightened” and unreasonable sanctions jeopardize ordinary voters, representatives of business and civil sectors.
Deriving from the above mentioned facts, non-governmental organizations, most of media outlets and experts consider necessary to take adequate steps to improve the existing situation and pre- election environment.
On February 13 supported by the Open Society Georgia Foundation, NGOs and media launched a joint campaign – “This Affects You Too” and disseminated a petition for changing the recently amended legislation:
“We, NGOs and media representatives realizing the importance of fair and free elections perceive enacted in December 2011 legislative amendments strongly unacceptable, because they:
1. Limit civil and political activities, property right and freedom of expression;
2. Stagnate democratic development of the country;
3. Impose hard and unreasonable responsibility on voters;
4. Vest the main entity controlling finances of political parties – Chamber of Control of Georgia- with unlimited and non-constitutional authority;
5. Create serious risk for ordinary citizens and civil sector including media;
6. Deteriorate election environment in the country.
Deriving from the above, hereby we appeal to the Parliament to make changes in the election legislation”.
Join the campaign on the FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/esshengexeba
Web-site of the campaign coming soon www.ESSHENGEXEBA.ge