Page 11 - GEORptMay21

Georgia is presently deciding whether to return to tight measures to address a growing spike in its coronavirus cases. Georgia by March 26 had received 29,500 Pfizer vaccine doses and 43,200 AstraZeneca shots, while it had ordered 100,000 Sinovac doses from China. Reluctance to get vaccinated is seen as particularly high among Georgians.
Georgia’s coordinating council set up to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at its February 24 meeting decided to lift a number of pandemic restrictions from March 1.
In the meantime, efforts to secure a supply of coronavirus vaccines for the South Caucasus country are advancing slowly.
2.7 Polls & Sociology
Poll shows Georgians split on early elections
CoE’s GRECO reports Georgia implementation of seven of 16 recommendations on preventing corruption
The Georgian public is split 45% versus 45% on the issue of whether a snap parliamentary election should be held, but a majority (60% against 26%) believe that the opposition should put an end to its boycott of parliament, according to a poll commissioned by the International Republican Institute (IRI) and released on April 5.
Negotiations between opposition parties and the ruling party Georgian Dream, mediated by the European Union, have so far failed to settle Georgia's five-month-long political crisis.
The public perception on whether the 2020 general election was rigged, which is the contention of the opposition parties, is mixed, according to the poll, but most respondents (25%) indicated that the ballot was “definitely free, fair and transparent”. Rejecting that conclusion was 19%, who backed the claim that the election was “definitely not free, democratic and transparent”.
Amid the difficulties Georgia's government has faced managing the coronavirus health and economic crisis, 59% of respondents said Georgia is going in the wrong direction (up from 53% in June 2020), while 30% said it is going in the right direction (down from 38% in June).
A total of 15% of respondents said they were very satisfied with the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, a significant decrease from 41% in June.
Over the past two years, Georgia has implemented two more recommendations of 17 issued by GRECO - the anti-corruption body of the Council of Europe (CoE) - in 2016 on the prevention of corruption among MPs, judges and prosecutors, GRECO announced in a new compliance report published on April 12.
“All in all, seven out of 16 recommendations have been implemented satisfactorily or dealt with in a satisfactory manner, another seven have been partly implemented and two have still not been implemented," read the report. The report added that the regulations on transparency of the legislative process on the side of the parliament "have been greatly enhanced [...] but rules should also be adopted to allow for meaningful consultations to take place."
GRECO urged the authorities to take further measures to enhance public trust in the recruitment process for judges, be it in relation to the Supreme Court or common courts, and in particular with respect to the decision-making of the High Council of Justice.
GRECO regretted that the limitation of the broad immunity of judges was still under consideration and concluded that its recommendation that the immunity of judges be limited to activities relating to their participation in judicial
11 GEORGIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com