Georgia’s government bill limits election-result challenges

Georgia’s government has proposed allowing challenges to the Central Election Commission’s final results protocol only over certain errors in recording polling-station data or final court rulings. The bill would also change how results reach the commission and end mandatory random recounts.

The proposal was introduced in parliament on 28 October 2026, JAMnews said on 3 November. Under the current system, district commissions collect and consolidate results from polling stations before the Central Election Commission (CEC) compiles the overall result.

Direct reporting and narrower challenges

Under the bill, precinct commissions, which count votes at polling stations, would send their results protocols directly to the CEC. District commissions would no longer collect and consolidate those results for the national count.

A challenge to the CEC’s final protocol would be admissible only if precinct data were omitted or recorded incorrectly, or if final court rulings on election-law violations were omitted or reflected incompletely or incorrectly. Courts would reject claims that fail to meet those requirements, and accepted claims could be examined only within the circumstances defined by law.

Recounts and deadlines

District commissions currently must randomly select 5 polling stations and recount their votes within 6 days after an election. The bill would abolish that requirement. Its authors say extra random recounts are unnecessary because officials count votes after electronic machines print results, while stations without the machines digitize ballots within 2 days and publish them online.

The CEC currently has 26 days to finalize parliamentary, Tbilisi City Council and Tbilisi mayoral election results; other local and municipal mayoral elections have a 15-day limit. The bill would require finalization of all results no later than the 15th day, with court proceedings challenging election protocols also completed within that period.

The bill’s explanatory note says 14 days are enough to challenge results before district commissions and courts, and that the additional 11 days only prolong the process.

A challenge after the 2024 election

Nona Kurdovanidze, director of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, argues that the restrictions would effectively remove the ability to challenge election results. She says that, had the proposed rules applied to the 2024 parliamentary election, ballot-secrecy violations could not even formally have been challenged and a Tetritskaro court precedent would not have arisen.

After the 26 October 2024 election, the association sought to annul results at every polling station using electronic voting technology. Marker ink showed through thin ballot paper, making voters’ choices visible as they inserted ballots into counting machines, JAMnews said.

On 4 November, Tetritskaro District Court Judge Vladimir Khuchua upheld the association’s case and annulled results at 30 polling stations in 2 electoral districts. The Tbilisi Court of Appeal overturned the ruling on 7 November. Parliament must now decide whether to adopt the proposed changes.