Independent international consultant Tamara Sartania provides insight into electoral system, election administration, electronic voting technologies, undecided voters and heated rhetoric in Georgia.

The next parliamentary elections in Georgia are set to take place on October 26, 2024. The elections will be conducted under the newly introduced fully proportional electoral system, and all 150 members of parliament will be elected in a single nationwide constituency under a 5% threshold. For the first time in country-wide elections, the voting process at most of the polling stations will be conducted with the use of electronic voting technologies. Elections are administered by the three-tier election administration.

The highest electoral management body – the Central Election Commission – is an independent agency composed of nine members nominated by qualified political parties and eight non-partisan members appointed by the Parliament on a professional basis.

Questions remain around the mandate of the current CEC chair and two non-partisan members, whose second six-month term expired in August 2022.

However, the law permits the members whose term expires to remain in post until the new appointees are voted in. The process is deadlocked in the parliament following the President’s refusal to re-nominate the current Chair and two members.

The elections are taking place against the backdrop of the mounting political polarization and disengaged electorate, where many feel that none of the political parties represent their interests.