Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of "Georgian Dream," stated on September 13 that the ruling party will develop a draught law on the widespread implementation of voter registration and voting using electronic equipment beginning in 2024, as part of the implementation of the European Commission's recommendations on electoral reform. According to the proposed bill, most polling stations, including all cities and large towns where at least 70% of voters live, will use electronic equipment to register voters and help them vote.
Kobakhidze emphasised that "electronic voting will finally strengthen public trust in the process of counting votes, eliminate the problem of imbalance in election protocols, and forever end the so-called speculations." According to him, the electronic system will speed up the vote counting process, ensure the publication of results a few minutes after the end of the voting, and remove the problems related to the falsification of exit polls and parallel counting of votes. He also explained that the decision was made by the management team after the electronic voting process was successfully completed during last year's elections in Tbilisi’s Krtsanisi district as well as this year's municipal mid-term elections in eight polling stations in Batumi. According to Kobakhidze, the ruling party will develop the bill in the next few days, after which, based on consultations with the Government of Georgia, the Central Election Commission, and experts in the field, "practical steps will be taken to equip the polling stations with voting equipment."
Overall, the initiative received a positive reaction from the Georgian opposition. According to Badri Japaridze, the leader of the Lelo Party, it is good to conduct elections with an electronic system, but the process should be 100% electronic. "Leaving 30% means that they will try to manipulate this percentage, and therefore, it is unclear on what principle 70% should be divided by 30%. This leaves the same risks that characterise the elections held by the Georgian Dream in Georgia. Therefore, it is good to conduct elections electronically, but it must be 100% electronic; this is a very principled and important issue," he argued.
"At the same time, conducting elections electronically is not enough for fair competition. For this, it is necessary to prevent the widespread use of administrative resources as well as to stop the practise of using criminal groups, which Georgian Dream did in the last elections," Japaridze added.
The leader of the Citizens Party, Deputy Aleko Elisashvili, argued that the electronic voting procedure in the interim elections held in Rustavi and Batumi was so effective that the opposition did not file any complaints. "It would be very good if electronic vote counting machines were installed at the elections, because experience showed that everyone knew the results within half an hour. Counting with old calculators and Domino stones is over, as the results of the elections were not counted until the next morning," said the politician.
