According to "Transparency International - Georgia", the government often tries to make the election legislation worse and adapt to itself. The organization calls on the parliament not to accept the initiated bill.

"On March 20 of this year, the deputies of "Georgian Dream" appealed to the parliament with the initiative of changing the election code, which provides for the cancellation of the minimum 40% threshold for electing the majority candidates of the municipality council. If the change is adopted, there will be no second rounds of the majority elections of the Sakrebulo, which increases the risk of losing voters' votes and the supporters of the opposition parties participating in the elections lose the chance to support a single opposition candidate in the second round.

According to the current version of the law, based on the majoritarian election system, a candidate is considered elected as a member of the City Council when he receives more votes than his competitors, but not less than 40% of the votes. In the event that none of the candidates overcomes the 40% threshold, a second round is appointed. This threshold was established in 2021 in the Election Code.

The proposed change also increases the possibility that a candidate will be elected as a member of the Sakrebulo, against whom more voters voted than for him. Ultimately, there is a growing danger that the will of the electorate will not be adequately reflected in mandates.

Thus, the presented change is clearly a backward step, which also reflects the general trend observed in the legislative policy of the "Georgian Dream" government in recent years, in connection with the elections. In particular, the government is increasingly trying to deteriorate the electoral legislation and adapt it to itself. As an illustration, it is enough to recall the recently adopted amendments to the Election Code of Georgia and the Parliament's Regulations regarding the election of the CEC chairman and members, which completely ignore the recommendations of the Venice Commission and Odiri.

Based on all of the above, we call on the parliament not to accept the initiated bill", the information says.