The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR issued their urgent joint opinion on the draft amendments to the Election Code of Georgia, following an urgent request for assistance by the then Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Mr Archil Talakvadze, addressed to the OSCE/ODIHR on 9 March 2021.

Proposed amendments to the Election Code include some positive changes but raise some new concerns which add to long-standing fundamental issues that remain unaddressed. A more comprehensive and systemic reform is still needed.

This opinion was prepared under the Quick Response Mechanism (QRM), in the framework of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.