“Amendments to the Election Code are fully in compliance with the Constitution of Georgia, international standards, and public interests. We will override the President’s veto,” said Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

According to the Speaker, those who call on the ruling party to elect a member of the Lelo party as Chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) have “malevolent intentions.”

“Those people are ignorant or have no understanding of what we have to do with. They want to mislead people intentionally. Nothing will change in Giorgi Sioridze’s life after we override the veto. He will remain one of the CEC’s 17 members as he was. He will have one vote.

The opposition wants to discredit CEC’s acting chairman. They aimed to create the situation to force the acting chair to resign and provide grounds for another circumstance, they wanted a member of the Lelo Political Council to become a CEC Chair. Those who call on the ruling party to elect a member of the Lelo party as Chairperson of the Central Election Commission are either ignorant or have malevolent intentions,” the Speaker said.

On March 5, President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed amendments to the Election Code of Georgia recently passed by the parliament.