Intermediate Report Research of Pre-election Period - The Human ...

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was put in charge of controlling party funding (in accordance with the 2012 Constitutional amendments, former Chamber of Control was renamed the State Audit Office). The main functions of the former Chamber of Control were regulated by Article 97 of the Constitution of Georgia. The initial version of this article stated that “The Chamber of Control of Georgia shall supervise the use and expenditure of state funds and of other material goods. It shall also be authorized to examine the activities of other state bodies of fiscal and economic control and submit proposals on improving tax legislation to the Parliament.” These functions and the name of the former Chamber of Control were changed by the constitutional amendments of May 22, 2012. According to the new amendments and additions to the Constitution, the State Audit Office shall supervise the use and expenditure of public funds and other material goods – that is, including the non-state expenditure of political parties; although this institution already supervised the expenditure of political parties in accordance with the amendments introduced on December 27, 2011 to the Law of Georgia on Political Parties. We can assert that from December 27 2011 to May 22 2012, the Chamber of Control carried out activities beyond its realm of competency as defined by the Constitution. We believe this fact can be considered as a significant violation of the Constitution and it must be studied in detail in view of the constitutionality and the legal impact of those violations. We can only assume why the Georgian legislative body failed to respect such an important constitutional amendment in addition to the principle of the rule of law. However, we should underline one important fact – unlike in organic law, more complex and lengthy legislative procedures are required to amend the constitution. Moreover, any draft constitutional amendment must be publicly discussed for at least one month. So, unlike in organic law, it is impossible to introduce any amendments to the Constitution in a limited time-frame. The particular procedures around discussing and passing constitutional amendments stem from the rule of law principle which states that when adopting any law (particularly 14
amendments to the Constitution) special procedures must be respected, which are mentioned in the report approved by the Venice Commission on April 4, 2011. 9 So, we can assume that the government made negative use of some legislative resources before the elections. Some more legislative amendments were adopted using the same method and were used for a particular purpose, as happened in the case of Bidzina Ivanishvili's Cartu Bank , which was fined 200 million lari. 10 Use of Law Enforcement, Supervisory and Regulatory (Ruling) Resources of the Government During the entire pre-election period, many incidents were observed when supervisory and law enforcement institutions of the government exerted a direct influence on voters, election candidates and their activists. The following state institutions were particularly active in this regard: law enforcement bodies (mostly police and special units of the MIA), judiciary bodies (which consistently accepted solicitations of police, prosecutor‟s office and other supervisory bodies to detain politically active people, to impose administrative imprisonment on them, etc), State Audit Office, employees of central or local governmental bodies and their family members. Below are listed concrete activities of the relevant government institutions in August- September 2012 which directly or indirectly contributed to an unequal pre-election environment. Illegal Interference in Journalistic Activities 1. On July 26th of 2012 Georgian Media Legal Defense Center published a statement and reacted to the recent facts of interference with professional work of journalists. See the original text of the statement: 9 http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/2011/CDL-AD(2011)003rev-e.pdf 10 http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=14108&lang=eng 15
Page 1 and 2: Human Rights Center (HRIDC) Interme
Page 3 and 4: Contents Introduction -------------
Page 5 and 6: Standards for Assessment of Pre-ele
Page 7 and 8: partners started to have problems (
Page 9 and 10: administrative resources is prohibi
Page 11 and 12: several political bodies (party or
Page 13: On December 27 2011, nine months be
Page 17 and 18: sexual activity with a male employe
Page 19 and 20: standing away from the perimeter in
Page 21 and 22: shooting the incident; suddenly the
Page 23 and 24: leave the party in time they would
Page 25 and 26: school Kamila Khevsurishvili threat
Page 27 and 28: Dream. Nodar Javakhishvili told Int
Page 29 and 30: Nobody commented on the fact from t
Page 31 and 32: the cottage; they verbally and phys
Page 33 and 34: Commission, does not allow them to
Page 35 and 36: On August 23Suliko Mikeladze and Ir
Page 37 and 38: said they were from police. I asked
Page 39 and 40: “Yesterday, late in the evening,
Page 41 and 42: 28. Free Georgia‟s regional offic
Page 43 and 44: 32. Ledi Natadze, member of the ele
Page 45 and 46: on July 29 she was called back and
Page 47 and 48: presumably is activist of the Natio
Page 49 and 50: got out of the cars. They started b
Page 51 and 52: in my car and everybody confirmed t
Page 53 and 54: Based on the applications, the char
Page 55 and 56: We checked part of the information
Page 57 and 58: We call upon the State Audit Office
Page 59 and 60: 56. During the night of August 7, 2
Page 61 and 62: and slapped him. The former went an
Page 63 and 64: officers, disobeyed and offered res
Page 65 and 66:
74. Nugzar Kapanadze - was arrested
Page 67 and 68:
Instances of questionable arrests i
Page 69 and 70:
Due to the aforementioned circumsta
Page 71 and 72:
Sagarejo district former governor G
Page 73 and 74:
Center gets funds from the Akhmeta
Page 75 and 76:
eporters for alleged "espionage". J
Page 77 and 78:
Mkinvartsveri. Several days later h
Page 79 and 80:
According to ICK products will be g
Page 81 and 82:
Conclusion As a result of monitorin
Page 83 and 84:
At the same time, the State Audit O
Page 85 and 86:
OSCE PA President Riccardo Migliori
Page 87 and 88:
“Up to date, only a small portion
Page 89:
Human Rights Center Al. Kazbegi Ave
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