Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association appeals to the Constitutional Court and demands to recognize boundaries of majoritarian constituencies established for local self-government elections unconstitutional.

“By its decision N1/3/547 of May 28, 2015, the Constitutional Court of Georgia considered unconstitutional those norms of the Electoral Code, which defined boundaries of constituencies for the parliamentary elections in a way that violated the principle of an equal weight of electoral votes of voters. According to the common practice of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, “the primary goal and basis for the exercise of the right to vote are to reflect the will of citizens in final results of elections”. Respectively, an important component of this right is the ability of voters to affect the outcome of elections. Following the disputed norms, loss of weight and influence of electoral vote deprives voters of the opportunity to exercise his/her active suffrage effectively. In contrary to this, voters, the weight of whose electoral vote is raised, obtain an increased chance to affect the results of elections. Such an electoral system grants citizens unequal opportunities as well as fails to ensure that elections are held in accordance with the Constitution and the will of voters is adequately reflected in the final results of elections, which contradicts the principle of democratic governance. The decision of the Constitutional Court was about the right to equality of votes in the parliamentary elections, however, international experience confirms that the same approach is relevant for local self-government elections as well”, - they state at GYLA.

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Source: The website of the organization