Setting up of DECs

1. A DEC is a standing territorial body of the Electoral Administration of Georgia. The CEC shall set up DECs by a majority of the total number of CEC members. A DEC has an official seal with its name on it, a stamp, and a settlement and current bank accounts. The DEC chairperson and accountant are responsible for the DEC expenditure authorised by the CEC. A DEC may spend funds allocated for elections from any account opened with any commercial bank and/or its branch office.

2. The CEC is authorised to set up by ordinance one DEC within the boundaries of one or more than one self-governing units, and 10 DECs in the city of Tbilisi.

3. The DEC chairperson/member shall be elected for a term of five years, while the tenure of a DEC member elected by the CEC following the announcement of an election under the fifth paragraph of this article shall be determined for a period starting with their appointment and ending with the announcement of final results of the respective elections.

4. Five members of a DEC shall be elected for a five year-term by a majority vote of the total members of the CEC.

5. After calling an election, 6 members of a DEC shall be appointed by the respective political unions under the procedure established by Article 13 of this Law, and 1 member shall be elected by a majority vote of the total members of the CEC for a period of time until the final results of a respective election are announced.

6. The decision of a party on the appointment of a DEC member shall be submitted to the CEC within seven calendar days after calling elections. If the authorised parties fail to appoint DEC members within the time frame determined in this paragraph, the CEC may fill the number of DEC members to 12 from the day following the expiration of the time frame as determined by this Law.

61. A party may, at any time, except on a polling day, recall its appointed DEC member. The party shall notify the respective electoral commission of this fact.

62. A person nominated as a DEC member shall not be considered a DEC member if the time limit for submitting documents defined under Article 20(13) of this Law has been violated, and/or if the documents submitted are incomplete or inaccurate and the deficiencies therein have not been corrected. If the documents submitted fail to comply with the requirements determined under Article 20(17) of this Law, the CEC Chairperson shall, within two days, notify the entity that appointed the DEC member of this fact (indicating the discrepancy). The corrected documents shall be returned to the CEC within three days

63. A person appointed as a DEC member by an authorised party shall not be considered a DEC member either if it is revealed that this person, at the time of his/her nomination to the CEC, is a member of the same or another election commission, and/or a person nominated fails to meet the requirements under Article 20(17) of this Law. In this case, the CEC Chairperson shall, within two days, notify the authorised party of this fact and shall additionally allow it one day for nomination of another DEC member.

7. A DEC shall elect head officers from among its members by a majority vote of the total number of DEC members.

8. A DEC may not be placed in the same building where the administration of a state representative, the municipality representative body Sakrebulo or the City Hall, a party, a court, a police division, or a division of the State Security Service of Georgia are located.

81. A party or election headquarters of a party/electoral bloc/initiative group may not be located in the building where a DEC is located.

9. The DEC Chairperson may, after announcing an election until the end of it, hire, under labour contracts, as many auxiliary and technical personnel (except for an accountant) for the election commission as determined by ordinance of the CEC. Members of the auxiliary and technical personnel of the DEC commission shall not be the public servants under the Law of Georgia on Public Service and they shall not fall under the requirements of incompatibility of offices provided for by the legislation of Georgia.

10. The DEC Chairperson may hire, under a labour contract, as many accountants as defined under paragraph 9 of this article until the end of the procedures provided for by Article 53(5) of this Law.

Organic Law of Georgia No 2093 of 7 March 2014 – website, 14.3.2014
Organic Law of Georgia No 3973 of 8 July 2015 – website, 15.7.2015
Organic Law of Georgia No 4392 of 27 October 2015 – website, 11.11.2015
Organic Law of Georgia No 4706 of 23 December 2015 – website, 8.1.2016
Organic Law of Georgia No 5438 of 22 June 2016 – website, 12.7.2016
Organic Law of Georgia No 168 of 21 December 2016 – website, 28.12.2016
Organic Law of Georgia No 1232 of 26 July 2017 – website, 29.7.2017
Organic Law of Georgia No 1274 of 26 July 2017 – website, 29.7.2017
Organic Law of Georgia No 3269 of 21 July 2018 – website, 27.7.2018
Organic Law of Georgia No 3266 of 21 July 2018 – website, 13.8.2018