Shalva Papuashvili, a majority MP said the competition commission has shortlisted nominees for the vacant posts of the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman and members on July 8, and now it is up to the President to decide.

According to the lawmaker, the statements made by the NGOs demonstrate their inauthentic and coordinated conduct. Papuashvili presumes that the NGOs agreed on the voting rule in advance and supported only two candidates, who are NGO representatives.

“This is hardly compatible with any standard but is a direct conflict of interest. That is a below-zero standard when the competition commission shortlists those two applicants previously employed in their NGO community,” he said.

Shalva Papuashvili further noted that the move was disappointing since NGOs were supposed to be the watchdogs of high standards in state institutions. “NGOs claimed the commission might fail to shortlist candidates at all. According to the law, the CEC party component would have been staffed from August 1 in this case, and we would have the Central Election Commission with opposition preponderance,” Shalva Papuashvili said.

MP believes the NGOs planned to flunk the CEC staffing that would have resulted in the opposition dominance at the Central Election Commission, including the Chairperson’s post. Papuashvili believes that this is most outrageous. “NGOs took the political side that goes beyond the standards,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that the President has to decide now. He underlined that the competence of the shortlisted nominees is of no concern, while NGOs break compatibility with the standard when shortlisting the insiders. “They directly meddle in politics and want to pursue the political agenda,” Shalva Papuashvili claimed.

The competition commission set up by President Zourabichvili shortlisted two candidates for the vacant Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairperson’s job and five applicants for two CEC member posts on July 8. Two shortlisted CEC Chairperson job claimers are current CEC employees, Giorgi Kalandarishvili and Giorgi Santuriani. Gia Tsatsashvili, Ana Mikeladze, Lela Taliuri, Maia Zaridze and Tamara Sartania were shortlisted for CEC member vacancies.